Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require President Donald Trump to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia.
The measure, which would need a veto-proof majority to become law, would require Trump to extend New START unless Russia “is not in material compliance with New START such that the object and purpose of the Treaty is significantly undermined,” according to the bill text.
It was one of two nuclear arms-control bills Menendez unveiled Tuesday. The measures would, the senator said, establish a framework for beginning arms control talks with both Russia and China. The latter is not party to any nuclear-arms-limiting treaties.
The Trump administration wants to replace New START, a bilateral treaty between Russia and the U.S. ratified during the Barack Obama administration, with a trilateral treaty that also constrains China’s nuclear arsenal, plus additional Russian nuclear weapons.
New START limits to 1,550 the number of strategic nuclear weapons that Washington and Moscow may deploy on a mixture of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), heavy bomber aircraft, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). Both sides reached that limit in February 2018.
The accord will expire next February, but can be extended for up to five years if the U.S. and Russian presidents agree. Russia has said it would extend the treaty, but Trump has focused on a trilateral deal. China has said it will not participate in nuclear arms-control talks.
