Trump rejects Putin’s offer to extend nuclear deployment limits

WEB DESK: U.S. President Donald Trump has formally rejected a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to voluntarily maintain caps on strategic nuclear weapon deployments, marking what analysts describe as the definitive end of the Cold War era arms control framework following the expiration of the New START treaty, the last remaining agreement limiting the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump dismissed the 2010 accord as a “badly negotiated deal,” arguing it had been “grossly violated” after Russia suspended on-site inspections in 2023, and said that rather than extending New START, Washington should pursue a new, modernised treaty. The treaty’s expiration removes limits of 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 delivery systems, prompting warnings from arms control advocates that both sides could rapidly expand their nuclear forces.

While Trump has reiterated interest in a trilateral agreement including China, Beijing whose arsenal is estimated at around 600 warheads compared with more than 4,000 each for the U.S. and Russia has repeatedly declined to participate.

Moscow responded with regret, with Russia’s foreign ministry warning it could take “decisive military-technical countermeasures” if the U.S. begins reloading warheads onto intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The United Nations has urged renewed dialogue, cautioning that the loss of transparency and verification mechanisms increases the risk of miscalculation, while Ukraine described the treaty’s collapse as a result of Russian nuclear blackmail.

The White House said the U.S. remains open to constructive talks, but analysts warn that without a formal framework, both powers may revert to worst-case planning, raising the prospect of the largest nuclear buildup since the 1980s.