Signed in 2010 in Prague, Czech Republic, the New Start treaty on nuclear disarmament, to which Russia has announced that it is suspending its participation, was the last bilateral agreement of its kind linking the two former Cold War rivals. It was then one of the key components of the policy of the Resetan attempt by the US administration to reset » relations with the Kremlin.
Reduce nuclear arsenals
The New Start agreement limits the arsenals of the two nuclear powers to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads each, a reduction of almost 30% compared to the previous limit set in 2002. It also limits the number of launchers and heavy bombers at 800, which is still enough to destroy Earth multiple times. The treaty also involves a series of mutual inspections of military sites, a pillar of the disarmament policy advocated by former US President Ronald Reagan.
Negotiations for the renewal of the treaty had been deadlocked throughout the presidency of Donald Trump, who wanted to see China, other major nuclear powerbe included in the restrictions of the arsenals.
Moscow and the new administration of Joe Biden had reached an agreement on the edge in January 2021 to extend it for five years, until February 5, 2026, in a climate of great mutual mistrust.
An agreement in the hot seat
Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, relations between Moscow and Washington were at their lowest since the end of the Cold War, between persistent disagreements on a growing number of international issues, accusations of election interference , espionage and a massive wave of cyberattacks. The extension agreement had been promptly ratified by the Russian Parliament, then validated by Washington.
On August 9, 2022, Russia announced suspend US inspections planned on its military sites within the framework of the treaty, ensuring to act in response to American obstacles to Russian inspections similar to the United States.
While the tone had fallen a little about the threats of a nuclear strike of Russia in its war against Ukraine, a meeting had been scheduled for November 29 to December 6, 2022 in Cairo to discuss a possible resumption of inspections. But the day before the meeting, Moscow had announced its indefinite postponement, accusing Washington of “ hostility ” and of “ toxicity “. On February 1, 2023, Russia accused the United States of having destroys the legal framework of the treaty.
During Donald Trump’s presidency, the United States withdrew with a bang from several international agreements including the INF Treaty, another important disarmament treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces, signed during the Cold War with Moscow.
What Vladimir Putin criticizes
President Putin called it “ theater of the absurd » the fact that theNATO demanded that Russia apply New Start and authorizes access to inspections of military nuclear sites » Russians. “ Via the representatives of NATO, we are sent ultimatums : “You, Russia, do everything we agreed on, including New Start, and we will do what we want”, accused the master of the Kremlin.
Vladimir Putin thus suggested that NATO join New Start to make this treaty fair, “ because, within NATO, the United States is not the only nuclear power ». « France and Great Britain also have nuclear arsenals, they are perfecting them, modernizing them and they are directed against us “, he said again.
Russia will, however, continue to respect the limitation imposed on its nuclear arsenal by the New Start treaty, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Russian president also called on the Russian authorities to stand ” ready for nuclear weapons testing if Washington did it first.
► To listen also: Lines of Defense – Nuclear Fire: Nash’s Equilibrium
(With AFP)