Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Friday (Jan. 29) extending the key Russian-U.S. nuclear control treaty “New START” for five years, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russia’s lower and upper houses voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve the extension of the treaty.
Russia said the extension of the New START treaty will enter into force once the two sides have completed their respective domestic procedures and exchanged diplomatic notes.
A Kremlin statement said, “The renewal of this treaty is in the national interest of the Russian Federation, keeps the strategic relations between Russia and the United States transparent and predictable, and supports global strategic stability.”
“New START” refers to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The treaty limits the number of nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy to no more than 1,550. It also limits the number of deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers with nuclear warheads. In addition, the number of launchers used to launch nuclear warheads is also constrained.
But Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Texas), a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Monday (Jan. 25) that the existing New START treaty favors Russia.
“It [the treaty] doesn’t cover the huge arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons that Russia has, and it doesn’t cover some of Russia’s new delivery systems, like undersea delivery systems or nuclear-powered cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles,” Cotton said, “which is why Vladimir Putin wants it to be extended unconditionally.”
Cotton said U.S. President Joe Biden‘s approval of an unconditional extension of a one-sided arms treaty with Russia on his first full day in office “without requiring significant concessions from Putin” would “jeopardize our national security in the long run.” Cotton said that was very disappointing.
Cotton also expressed concern that New START is only a bilateral treaty. He said the treaty only deals with U.S. and Russian arms control, while the Chinese Communist Party continues to increase its nuclear armament.
Last June, the Trump administration invited Beijing to participate in nuclear disarmament talks between the U.S. and Russia, but the Chinese Communist Party declined to attend.
The Trump Administration has been hoping to expand the U.S.-Russia bilateral arms control treaty into a multilateral treaty to include the CCP. But the Chinese Communist Party has refused.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has also previously suggested that the current U.S.-Russia bilateral arms control treaty be expanded to a multilateral treaty to include China (the Chinese Communist Party). According to him, NATO also sees China (CCP) investing heavily in the development of new, modern weapons, including new missiles. If China (CCP) were a signatory to an arms control treaty, there would be a large number of missile violations.
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