President Donald Trump on Friday responded to a question posed by a reporter for the Russian TASS agency during a press conference on the White House lawn regarding nuclear weapons.
The US expects to formally engage with Russia soon on prospects for nuclear disarmament, Trump indicated, as the last remaining landmark nuclear arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow, known as New START, is in its last year. The full name is Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.
“That’s not an agreement you want expiring. We’re starting to work on that,” he told reporters outside the White House. It’s expiring “in about six months,” the TASS reporter had reminded Trump.
“It’s a problem for the world,” the president said continued in reference to its upcoming expiration of early 2026. “When you take off nuclear restrictions, that’s a big problem.”
He reiterated that he would like to see the US and Russia to cut their nuclear weapons stockpiles. Trump has since entering into office for his second term signaled repeatedly that this is an aim of his which would be good for the world and for humanity.
In March 2021 the two sides renewed New START for a period of five years, and it will expire in February 2026 if it is not continued – an increasing possibility given US-Russia relations have deteriorated so fast over the Ukraine war that they hover near complete breaking point.
Trump has made clear he wants to improve bilateral relations, despite also expressing frustration that peace talks haven’t produced fruit thus far. There could even possibly be a future face-to-face meeting with President Putin.
The New START treaty is intended to limit and reduce nuclear arms on either side, setting a limit of no more than 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 missiles.
START I began in 1991, with New START signed under the prior Obama and Medvedev administrations in 2010 as a successor agreement.
Trump’s Friday remarks in response to a question on New START:
Donald Trump: The imminent expiration of the New START treaty is a problem for the entire world.
New START is the Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms. It is a bilateral agreement between Russia and the United States aimed at limiting and reducing strategic… pic.twitter.com/cIy5UI9NJp
— Webuildhome (@webuildhome_org) July 25, 2025
The past couple years have seen the terms of the treaty essentially become inactive or de facto suspended, given each side has accused the other of violating its terms over not allowing inspectors to properly investigate stockpiles on their respective soils.
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