Russia is prepared to resume talks on nuclear arms control with the US, two years after suspending the last accord limiting their atomic arsenals, a top security official said.
“The administration of Donald Trump is currently demonstrating a readiness to resume dialogue on the issue of strategic stability,” Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu told the state-run Tass news service in an interview published Thursday. “We are ready for such work.”
Shoigu, a former defence minister, said negotiations on a new accord would have to cover the issue of NATO expansion, the US’s global missile-defence system and the deployment of ground-based, medium- and shorter-range missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2023 suspended participation in the New START nuclear treaty though Moscow pledged to continue complying with its terms until the accord’s expiration. Shoigu said Russia continues to respect the pact’s limits on nuclear arsenals, which restricts each side to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads.
Then-US President Joe Biden extended the treaty by five years to 2026 as one of his first acts upon taking office in 2021 shortly before it was due to expire. Putin had pressed Trump during his first term without success to agree to a deal.
The end of the treaty would mean the US loses access to inspections and monitoring data about the number of deployed Russian nuclear warheads, as well as the land- and sea-based vehicles used to launch them.
Shoigu pointed to the proposal of French President Emmanuel Macron to extend his country’s nuclear umbrella to European allies as a factor that will have to be taken into account in the new treaty.
“We expect specific proposals on these issues from our American partners,” he said.
Shoigu’s comments came as Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow this week for another round of talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump warned last week that he would walk away from efforts to end the war if a deal can’t be reached soon. At a meeting in Paris last week, US officials presented Europe and Ukraine with a new proposal to end the war that would effectively freeze the conflict largely along existing battle lines, Bloomberg previously reported.
The US is also willing to acknowledge Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory, and to ease sanctions on Moscow as part of any potential deal.