Russia, US must not abandon New START

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he is suspending Russia’s participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START as it is known, puts in jeopardy the last of the US-Soviet/Russia nuclear arms control agreements. These agreements had ushered in a measure of transparency and mutual confidence as well as sanity and stability in a world that had lived in terror of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. That stability, fragile as it was, has been systematically undermined by the two sides withdrawing from one treaty after another. The Trump administration pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty while President Joe Biden decided not to renew the Open Skies Treaty. Now, Putin has said Russia is suspending participation in New START.

The US and Russia signed New START in 2010 to replace the 1991 START Treaty. It came into force the following year. It limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads and delivery platforms that the two sides can each deploy to 1,550 and 700 respectively. Although the treaty was extended in 2021 for five more years, there were signs that its future was uncertain. Trump was keen to renegotiate the treaty’s terms as it covered only strategic nuclear weapons and not tactical ones. With its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow became reluctant to open its sites for inspection by the US.

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New START was a successful pact. By its 2018 deadline, the two countries did cut down their deployed strategic warheads and missiles to agreed-upon numbers. It is therefore unfortunate that the treaty is in peril. However, the situation is not hopeless. The Kremlin has only suspended its participation, not withdrawn from the treaty. It has clarified that its decision is “reversible,” which means that there is scope for talks to put the treaty back on track. Putin’s suspension of the treaty seems to be a ploy to pressure the US to negotiate an end to the war he started in Ukraine and on his terms. However, it is possible that the US will now use the Russian announcement to push for renegotiating the terms of New START. It wants China, which has a growing nuclear arsenal, to be included in the nuclear agreements. The US and Russia have concerns that need addressing. But suspending or dismantling a treaty is not the way forward as putting in place another will not be easy. Imperiling valuable nuclear treaties is irresponsible, especially at a time when US-Russia relations are extremely tense. The implications of jeopardising New START are global. Russia and America must avoid hurtling down this slippery slope back to the Cold War ‘balance of nuclear terror’.