It’s all up to Donald Trump. He “will decide the path forward on nuclear arms control, which he will clarify on his own timeline,” the White House said in a statement, Politico reported yesterday..
While the president considers a way forward, he has downplayed the risks of going without an arms control agreement for the foreseeable future, Politico notes further. Trump told The New York Times in a January interview that he would be able to cut a better deal. “If it expires, it expires,” he said. “We’ll just do a better agreement.”
But there’s no sign such an effort is underway and besides, Trump’s history on arms control isn’t a good sign. During his first administration, Trump wanted to include China in strategic arms control talk but the Chinese refused to participate.