The U.S. State Department expected Russia to meet treaty obligations today that limit deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, even as the two powers remain in a standoff over future disarmament negotiations.
Today is the deadline for Russia and the United States to meet the strategic nuclear warhead and delivery system numbers cemented in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, seven years after the accord entered into force.
As of September 2017, the last time State performed a formal tally, Moscow was within a dozen warheads of meeting the arms-reduction goal in the treaty. On Thursday, a State spokesperson told reporters that “[w]e assess at this time that Russia has also progressed toward meeting those limits.”
“Within the next month or so,” the United States and Russia will again swap data about their nuclear stockpiles that could confirm their compliance, the spokesperson said.
The U.S. reached the New START arms reduction numbers in August.
The Donald Trump administration has taken a more hawkish view of Russia and its nuclear stockpile than its predecessor, lately demonstrated by the new Nuclear Posture Review published Friday. The State Department briefed Russian counterparts about the document Friday, Anita Friedt, acting assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance, said during a Pentagon press briefing about the review.
The New START treaty is set to expire three years from now. The Trump administration is not negotiating a follow-on yet. Russia has said it wants eventually to come to the table, but U.S. officials — pointing to Moscow’s alleged violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty — say the time is not ripe.
On Friday, Friedt’s boss Thomas Shannon, outgoing undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the U.S. has to re-establish conditions necessary for “greater trust” with Russia.
The U.S. is open to “potential arms control,” Friedt said Friday, but has lacked a “willing partner” in Russia.
Russian officials, meanwhile, have blasted the new Nuclear Posture Review for planning to reintroduce submarine-launched cruise missiles into the U.S. arsenal. Moscow says this would violate the INF Treaty.
New START requires the U.S. and Russia to cap deployed long-range warheads and delivery mechanisms at: 700 deployed intercontinental- and submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers; 1,550 fielded strategic warheads; and 800 deployed and nondeployed long-range launchers.
