UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned that the expiry of the New START treaty between the United States and Russia marks a “grave moment for international peace and security,” and urged both countries to swiftly negotiate a successor agreement.
The treaty, set to expire on Thursday, will leave Washington and Moscow without any binding limits on their strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years. “For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding constraints on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America,” Guterres said in a statement.
He said New START and earlier arms control agreements had significantly enhanced global security, warning that their collapse comes at a particularly dangerous time. “The risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest it has been in decades,” Guterres said, without providing further details.
Calling on both sides to “return to the negotiating table without delay,” Guterres urged the US and Russia to agree on a new arms control framework. Russia and the United States together hold more than 80 per cent of the world’s nuclear warheads, though bilateral arms control arrangements have steadily eroded.
Signed in 2010, New START capped each side’s deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 and allowed on-site inspections, which were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed.
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