Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu has warned that the world’s security architecture is on the brink of collapse.
According to a TASS News Agency report on December 10, Sergey stressed that Moscow’s proposals for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) could help reverse the trend.
“We have less than 100 days left before New START expires. Our proposals, put forward by the president, remain on the table, and we are waiting for a response,” Shoigu told reporters.
“I think these proposals could make it possible to stop the current destructive process.”
He noted that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s proposals, which seek to establish a system of equal and indivisible security, are especially crucial at a time when “the world’s security architecture is not just gradually degrading but collapsing.”
He cited the United States’ withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as a key factor contributing to this decline.
“The security of one party should not be ensured at the expense of the security of another, or through increasing insecurity for others,” Shoigu said.
Putin Nuclear Offer
In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin reminded the United States of his powerful nuclear arsenal.
He announced successful tests of novel nuclear delivery systems. He also proposed an extension to New START, the bilateral strategic nuclear arms treaty that limits the size of US and Russian nuclear arsenals for one year.
Putin argued that extending the treaty would help to avoid a further arms race and ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint in relations between the two countries.
If the United States and Russia take no action, the final strategic arms limitation treaty will expire on February 5, 2026.
Also Read: Putin Warns Trump of Russian Response if US Resumes Nuclear Tests
About the New START Treaty Between Russia and US
The Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, known as the New START Treaty, sets verifiable limits on all Russian deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons. The United States and the Russian Federation agreed to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026.
The New START Treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011.
Under the treaty, the United States and the Russian Federation had seven years to meet the treaty’s central limits on strategic offensive arms (by February 5, 2018) and are then obligated to maintain those limits for as long as the treaty remains in force.
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Limits for the Countries
Both the United States and the Russian Federation met the central limits of the New START Treaty by February 5, 2018, and have stayed at or below them ever since.
Those limits are:
- 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.
- 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments (each such heavy bomber is counted as one warhead toward this limit)
- 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.
New START limits all Russian deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons, including every Russian atomic warhead that is loaded onto an intercontinental-range ballistic missile that can reach the United States in approximately 30 minutes.
It also limits the deployed Avangard and the under-development Sarmat, the two most operationally available of the Russian Federation’s new long-range nuclear weapons that can reach the United States.
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