China Hopes U.S. Will Continue Nuclear Control Deal with Russia
JAKARTA - The Chinese government hopes that the United States (US) can continue the nuclear control agreement with Russia after New START expires on February 4, 2026.
"For the long-term interests of global strategic stability, China hopes that the US will continue strategic stability dialogue with Russia to discuss the next steps after the New START Treaty expires. This is also what the world expects," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian at a press conference in Beijing, Friday, February 6.
The nuclear arms control agreement between the US and Russia called New START, which stands for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, has expired as of February 4, 2026.
The agreement contains an agreement to limit the number of strategic nuclear warheads deployed by the US and Russia to 1,550 units each and to limit the number of strategic delivery vehicles and systems such as heavy bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) to 800 units each.
The New START agreement provides transparency measures to avoid misjudging each other's intentions through data transfers, notifications and on-site inspections.
New START is a 10-year agreement signed by then-US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010 and came into force on February 5, 2011.
The agreement was extended for another five years in 2021 by US President Joe Biden and Russia led by President Vladimir Putin. The agreement expires on February 4, 2026.
The end of the agreement could mean that both Moscow and Washington would be free to increase the number of missiles and deploy hundreds of strategic warheads again, although this poses logistical challenges and will take time.
Although Russia suspended the agreement three years ago as tensions rose over the Ukraine war, the two countries are still considered to be in compliance with the NewSTART agreement.
US President Donald Trump last month said a future arms control agreement must also include China, which he said had been building up its nuclear arsenal.
However, Lin Jian previously stressed that China would not participate in nuclear control negotiations. "China's nuclear power is not at all equal to the US or Russia. Therefore, China will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations for the time being," Lin Jian said on Thursday (5/2).
Meanwhile, Russia has long argued future arms control agreements should include France and Britain as European nuclear powers.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the US had not responded to President Vladimir Putin's proposal to continue to comply with the missile and warhead limits in the agreement for another 12 months.
In January 2025, it is known that Russia has 4,309 nuclear warheads, and the US has 3,700. France and Britain, which are US allies bound by the treaty, have 290 and 225 warheads, respectively, while China has about 600.
The end of New START could also threaten the 1970 nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) which contains an agreement for non-nuclear weapon states to promise not to have nuclear weapons as long as the weapon-owning states make good faith efforts to disarm.