Experts have warned that the expiration of the US-Russia New START treaty could trigger a new nuclear arms race.
Published February 4, 2026
Russia has said it is “no longer bound” by limits on the number of nuclear warheads it can deploy as its last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the United States approaches expiration.
The New START treaty, signed in 2010, expires on Thursday. Russia said the United States did not respond to President Vladimir Putin’s offer to continue adhering to the treaty’s missile and warhead limits for another 12 months.
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“The parties to the New START Treaty consider themselves no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations within the context of the Treaty,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Essentially, our ideas are being deliberately ignored. This (U.S.) approach appears to be wrong and regrettable.”
New START, short for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, restricts the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons aimed at attacking key political, military, or industrial centers of enemy nations.
Deployed weapons or warheads are in active service and ready for immediate use, as opposed to those in storage or awaiting dismantling.
The treaty’s expiration means both Russia and Washington are free to increase the number of missiles and deploy hundreds of strategic warheads, but this would pose logistical challenges and take time.
Despite the treaty’s expiration, US President Donald Trump has expressed interest in a new agreement to limit nuclear weapons.
In an interview with The New York Times in January, President Trump said of the New START agreement, “When it expires, it expires. … We’re just going to get a better deal.”
President Trump also called for China to be involved in future nuclear talks.
New START is a 10-year agreement signed by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, who served one term as Russian president from 2008 to 2012, and went into effect in 2011.
Fear of a new arms race
Security experts say ending New START risks a new arms race, which will also be fueled by China’s rapid nuclear buildup.
“Without a treaty, both countries would be free to load hundreds of additional warheads on their deployed missiles and heavy bombers, roughly doubling the size of their currently deployed arsenals in the most maximalist scenario,” Matt Korda, deputy director of the Nuclear Intelligence Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told Reuters.
As the clock ticks towards the treaty’s expiration on Thursday, Pope Leo urged both sides not to abandon the limits set in the treaty.
The first American-born pope said in his weekly audience, “I urge you not to let this code expire.” “It is more urgent than ever to replace the logic of fear and mistrust with a common ethics that can guide choices towards the common good.”
