The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has warned that the expiration of the New Start treaty marks a 'grave moment for international peace and security', urging the United States and Russia to swiftly negotiate a new nuclear arms control agreement. The treaty, which limited each side to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, expired on Thursday, ending over half a century of binding limits on the world's two largest nuclear arsenals.
Guterres described the dissolution of decades of arms control achievements as coming 'at the worst time', noting that the risk of nuclear weapon use is the highest in decades. Russia and the US together control more than 80% of the global nuclear warhead stockpile. The UN chief called on both nations to 'return to the negotiating table without delay'.
The expiry of New Start, signed in 2010 by then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, has raised fears of a new arms race and could undermine the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Under the NPT, non-nuclear states pledged not to acquire weapons in exchange for good-faith disarmament efforts by nuclear powers.
Russia's foreign ministry stated that both countries are 'no longer bound by any obligations' under the treaty but said Russia would act 'responsibly and prudently', while warning of 'decisive' countermeasures if threatened. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump would decide later and reiterated a call for a new agreement that includes China, whose nuclear arsenal is growing rapidly but remains well below US and Russian levels.
Pope Leo XIV urged both sides to do 'everything possible' to avert a new arms race. Former President Barack Obama warned the treaty's expiry 'could spark another arms race that makes the world less safe'.
