New #ArmsRace looms as clock ticks down on last #Russia - #US #nuclear treaty
The last nuclear treaty between Russia & the US is due to expire within hours, raising the risk of a new arms race in which #China will also play a key role.
The web of #arms control deals negotiated in the decades since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, considered the closest the world ever came to intentional #NuclearWar, was aimed at reducing the chance of a catastrophic nuclear exchange.
Unless Washington & Moscow reach a last-minute understanding of some kind, the world's two biggest #nuclear powers will be left without any limits for the first time in more than half a century when the New START treaty expires.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said #Putin had discussed the issue in a video call on Wednesday with #China President #Xi Jinping and told him that Moscow would act "carefully & responsibly".
"We remain open to exploring avenues for negotiation & ensuring strategic stability," Ushakov quoted #Putin as saying.
There was confusion about the exact time the treaty would lapse, though #arms control experts told Reuters they believed this would happen at 2300 GMT on Wednesday—midnight in Prague, where the treaty was signed in 2010.
As the clock ticked towards expiry, #PopeLeo urged both sides not to abandon the limits set in the treaty.
"I issue an urgent appeal not to let this instrument lapse," the first U.S.-born pope said at his weekly audience. "It is more urgent than ever to replace the logic of fear and distrust with a shared ethic, capable of guiding choices toward the common good."
Matt Korda, associate director for the #Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said that if there were no agreement to extend the treaty's key provisions, neither #Russia nor the #UnitedStates would be constrained if they wanted to add yet more #warheads.
"Without the treaty, each side will be free to upload hundreds of additional warheads onto their deployed missiles & heavy bombers, roughly doubling the sizes of their currently deployed arsenals in the most maximalist scenario," he said.
#Trump has given different signals on arms control. He said last month that if the treaty expired, he would reach a “better” agreement [whatever that means. He said he’d come up with a better health plan than the ACA too].
So far, Russian officials said, there has been no response from Washington on a proposal by #Putin to extend the limits of the treaty beyond expiry.
Arms control supporters in Moscow & Washington say the expiry of the treaty would not only remove limits on #warheads but also damage confidence, trust & the ability to verify #nuclear intentions.
Nonilex
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