U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (February 5, 2026) called for a brand new nuclear treaty after the last agreement with Russia expired, prompting fears of a new global arms race.
The Trump administration has repeatedly pressed for a new treaty to include China, whose arsenal is growing but still significantly smaller than those of Russia and the United States, but Beijing has publicly rejected the pressure.Mr. Trump had been mostly mum on Russian calls to extend New START, the 2010 treaty that imposed the last restrictions on the two largest nuclear powers after decades of agreements dating from the Cold War.
But hours after it expired, Mr. Trump said that the treaty, signed by predecessor Barack Obama and extended by Joe Biden, was “badly negotiated” and “is being grossly violated.”
We should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.Asked if Washington and Moscow had agreed to stick to the terms of the expired START treaty while negotiations on a new accord are ongoing, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said: “Not to my knowledge.”
Russia had refused inspections under New START as relations deteriorated with the Biden administration.It said on Wednesday (February 4, 2026) that it no longer considered itself bound on the number of nuclear warheads due to the expiration of New START.Despite the stalemate on New START, Mr. Trump has enthusiastically restarted diplomacy with Russia and invited President Vladimir Putin to Alaska last August.
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