U.S. President Donald Trump is aware of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for one more year after February 5, 2026, when it will expire, and intends to comment on this offer, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at her regular briefing on Sept. 22. “The President is aware of this offer extended by President Putin, and I’ll let him comment on it later. I think it sounds pretty good, but he wants to make some comments on that himself, and I will let him do that,” Leavitt stated.
Putin stated at a meeting with the [Russian Security Council](http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/78051 on Sept. 22 that “Russia is prepared to continue adhering to the central quantitative limitations of the New START Treaty for one year after February 5, 2026.” Putin conditioned his proposal, saying that the measure would only be viable “if the U.S. acts in a similar manner and does not take steps that undermine or violate the existing balance of deterrence potentials.”
The START Treaty, according to a U.S. State Department report, puts per-country limits on United States and Russian deployment of weapons and of launchers: 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs,) deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments; 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments; and 700 deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.
U.S. President Donald Trump has not formally replied to President Putin, although whether he will is not totally clear. On July 25, Trump remarked: “[New START is] not an agreement you want expiring. We’re starting to work on that…. When you take off nuclear restrictions, that’s a big problem.”
