The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement yesterday announcing that the extension of the New START nuclear arms control treaty has entered into force following the exchange of diplomatic notes notifying each side that the necessary internal procedures for the extension were completed. The treaty will now be in effect until Feb. 5, 2026. The Russian statement also expressed the hope that the understanding that led to the extension of the treaty will make it possible to overcome the trend of disrupting mechanisms of arms control and non-proliferation “that dominated the past few years following the destructive policy of the U.S..” The statement acknowledged that this will take “significant effort,” but that Russia is ready to do the work.
The U.S. State Department issued a corresponding statement in the name of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, confirming from the U.S. side the completion of procedures to bring the extension into force. However, there was no promise from the U.S. side to work for improving U.S.-Russian relations. “Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, so too will we work to hold Russia to account for adversarial actions as well as its human rights abuses, in close coordination with our allies and partners,” Blinken concluded. Blinken did promise that not only would the U.S. pursue more extensive arms-control arrangements with Russia to cover its nonstrategic nuclear arsenal, but “we will also pursue arms control to reduce the dangers from China’s modern and growing nuclear arsenal.”
