Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that he’s interested in securing a new nuclear arms control pact with the United States, raising the stakes of his Aug. 15 summit with President Donald Trump.
The world’s last remaining nuclear arms control treaty, New START, limits the U.S. and Russia to keeping only 1,550 long-range nuclear warheads on alert at any given time. It expires in February 2026, though Russia in 2022 paused and later stopped consultation meetings and ceased allowing the U.S. and NATO to inspect its nuclear arsenal.
But in recent weeks, Putin and Trump have both discussed the possibility of a successor deal. Nuclear threats have emanated from Moscow since 2022 when Russia started its war against Ukraine, which is the main topic of the summit.
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Putin suggested the summit could create “the long-term conditions of peace between our countries … and in the world as a whole, if we reach agreements in the field of strategic (nuclear) offensive arms control,” while speaking to senior Kremlin military and civilian officials at an Aug. 14 meeting.
