For Immediate Release: October 24, 2025
Media Contacts: Daryl Kimball, executive director (202-463-8270 x107), Xiaodon Liang, Senior Policy Analyst (x113); Thomas Countryman, Chair of the Board and former Asst. Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (via x113)
(Washington, D.C.)— October 28 will mark 100 days until the last remaining treaty limiting the two largest nuclear arsenals—the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)—will expire. The treaty has been extended once and cannot be extended again. No talks are yet underway on a follow-on agreement.
Since it entered into force in 2011, New START has limited each side to no more than 1,550 deployed warheads on no more than 700 operational launchers (i.e. long-range missiles and bombers) and has provided greater predictability in the dangerous Russian-U.S. deterrence relationship.
New START has also made a major contribution to helping the United States and Russia meet their obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament ...."
As President Donald Trump said July 25 in response to a question about expiration of New START: “We are starting to work on that. That is a big problem for the world, when you take off nuclear restrictions.”
"Yes, President Trump is right. That would be a big problem, and it is past time for the Trump administration to translate talk into action," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
"As the Arms Control Association and others have noted for more than a year, negotiating a new, formal treaty to supersede New START would take time, so it is vital that Trump and Putin reach an interim agreement to continue to respect the current strategic nuclear weapons limits until a new, more comprehensive framework deal can be achieved between the U.S. and Russia," he suggested.
"Failure to do so risks the first major buildup of deployed U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons in more than 35 years," Kimball warned.
"In fact, some in the U.S. nuclear weapons establishment want the United States to significantly increase the size of its strategic nuclear force beyond the New START limits on deployed warheads (1,550) and deployed delivery systems (700) by uploading more warheads on existing long-range missiles or deploying more missiles and bombers," he noted.
"In reality, more nuclear weapons will not make anyone safer, nor will it enhance deterrence; it would only invite a dangerous, unconstrained arms race involving Russia and China that no one can win," Kimball warned.
A Safer Path Forward
On Sept. 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that “Russia is ready to continue to adhere to the central quantitative restrictions under the [New] START Treaty for one year after February 5, 2026,” if the United States reciprocates.
When asked by a reporter about Putin's proposal on Oct. 5, President Trump, said: "Sounds like a good idea to me."
However, the U.S. government has not yet formally replied to the Kremlin offer, which Russia's foreign ministry has described as "a limited offer, for a limited time."
“We urge Presidents Trump and Putin to formalize a mutual pledge to maintain mutual restraints on their already massive strategic nuclear arsenals, and direct their teams to resume formal U.S.-Russian talks on further nuclear arms reductions, which would be a positive and essential step for U.S. and world security,” said Thomas Countryman, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Arms Control Association, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation.
"This approach would provide Presidents Trump and Putin with greater leverage to urge other states to join the nuclear arms control enterprise. They could call upon China, France, and the UK to freeze their nuclear forces at the current number of strategic launchers, provided Russia and the United States pursue deeper verifiable reductions in their far larger strategic nuclear warhead and launcher stockpiles," Kimball suggested.
According to independent assessments by the Federation of American Scientists and published by SIPRI, the United States and Russia have fewer than 800 total strategic nuclear launchers each; China has some 550 strategic nuclear launchers; and the U.K. and France have a combined total of about 100 strategic launchers.
"A mutual freeze in the number of strategic nuclear launchers at these levels would not adversely affect any one country's nuclear deterrence capabilities, it would create some much-needed predictability and provide a basis for serious bilateral talks on further nuclear restraints and reductions," Kimball said.
"As the end of New START approaches, we urge Presidents Trump and Putin to put the world on a safer path by agreeing to build-down and not to build-up the nuclear danger," Countryman said.
Additional Resources:
“U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Agreements at a Glance“ an ACA Fact Sheet
“After the New START Treaty,” Deep Cuts Commission Fact Sheet, Sept. 15, 2025