Putin Offers Trump An Extension Of One Year Of Nuclear Weapons Pact

Russian President Vladimir Putin with US President Donald Trump in Alaska/PHOTO via Instagram @russian_kremlin

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin offered US President Donald Trump a nuclear arms control deal that would extend the final agreement to limit the nuclear weapons of the two countries for one year.

Russia and the United States so far have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. The last remaining agreement between those limiting this number of weapons will end on February 5 next year.

The New START Agreement includes strategic nuclear weapons designed by each party to attack enemy military, economic and political power centers and limit the number of warheads deployed to 1,550 on each side. Both are likely to violate these limits if this agreement is not extended or replaced.

Putin, who said his proposal was in the interest of global non-proliferation and could help push for dialogue with Washington about arms control, had come under pressure from Trump to approve the end of the war in Ukraine.

This, according to Moscow, is part of a series of security issues that have raised East-West tensions to their most dangerous levels since the Cold War.

The offer, which was filed while Ukraine was trying to persuade Trump to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, was announced by Putin at a meeting of his Security Council.

"Russia is ready to continue to comply with central numerical boundaries in the New START Agreement for one year after February 5, 2026," Putin said.

"Furthermore, based on the situation analysis, we will make a decision whether to maintain this voluntary self-imposed restriction," he added.

"We believe that this step would only be feasible if the United States acted in the same way and did not take steps that undermine or violate the balance of existing preventive capabilities," Putin stressed.

The proposal appears to be a unilateral policy change by Moscow which until now insists that it will only engage with Washington in those matters if relations as a whole are hampered by sharp dissent over the war in Ukraine improves.