[Global Times Special Correspondent Yan Qing] Reuters reported on the 22nd that Russian President Vladimir Putin said on the same day that if US President Trump takes the same action, he is ready to extend the last arms control treaty between Russia and the United States that limits the number of nuclear weapons on both sides for one year.
The new Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Weapons sets a ceiling on the number of strategic nuclear warheads and their carriers, such as ground-based ballistic missiles, submarine ballistic missiles and strategic bombers, which can be deployed by the United States and Russia.The treaty will expire on February 5, 2026, and the two sides have not yet agreed on the extension.Putin said at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Security Council of the Russian Federation that in the interests of global non-proliferation, Russia is prepared to extend the agreement for a year after the expiry of the New Treaty on Strategic Weapons and push for dialogue with Washington on the follow-up arrangements of the treaty, provided that the United States is prepared to take the same action.
Following the end of the Soviet-U.S. Treaty on the Elimination of Middle- and Short-Range Missiles in 2019, the new Treaty on Strategic Weapons Reduction became the only arms control treaty between the two countries. According to the treaty, Russia and the United States planned to reduce the number of their respective intercontinental ballistic missiles to 700 in seven years, the number of nuclear warheads to 1550 and the number of deployed and un deployed launch tools for the launch of nuclear warheads to 800. The treaty was signed in 2010 and entered into force on 5 February 2011 for a period of 10 years. On 3 February 2021, Russia and the United States exchanged diplomatic licenses to extend the treaty until 5 February 2026. A year after the outbreak of the Russian conflict in Ukraine, Russia announ