WASHINGTON, July 25. /TASS/. Moscow and Washington preparing a new agreement to replace the Russia-US Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) is in the interests of the entire world, Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told TASS.

Commenting on remarks by US President Donald Trump about his intention to discuss the prospects of continued nuclear disarmament with Russia, the expert said: "President Trump is right, it is in the mutual interests of the United States, Russia, and the world to maintain the limits set by the New START agreement." In his opinion, "given that New START will expire soon and negotiating a new treaty takes time, it is vital that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin reach an interim deal agreement to continue to respect the current strategic nuclear weapons limits until a new, more comprehensive framework deal can be achieved between the US and Russia." "And they should direct their teams to begin talks on such a framework agreement as soon as possible," the expert asserted.

"Unless they do so, we could soon see each side increasing the size of their deployed nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 35 years by uploading warheads on existing missiles, which is in no one’s interests," Kimball added.

The Arms Control Association, led by Kimball, was founded in 1971 and is a well-known Washington-based nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies.

Earlier, replying to a question by TASS, Trump said that the US expects to engage with Russia soon for a discussion of prospects for nuclear disarmament. That said, the US leader emphasized that the imminent expiration of the New START Treaty would be "a problem for the world."

About New START

The Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty) was signed by Russia and the United States in 2010. On February 21, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to suspend Russia’s participation in New START without withdrawing from it. The president stressed that, before discussing resuming any work under the treaty, Moscow must understand for itself how New START would factor in the nuclear arsenals not only of the United States, but also those of other nuclear powers in NATO, such as the UK and France. On February 28, 2023, Putin signed a law suspending Russia’s participation in the New START Treaty.

The document stipulates that seven years after its entry into effect each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers.

In February 2021, Moscow and Washington extended the treaty which the Russian government characterized as the gold standard in the disarmament sphere, for a five-year period, until 2026.