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New START Treaty extension

On 26 January, the United States and Russia agreed to extend, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) for five additional years.

This bilateral treaty was signed in 2010 to limit the nuclear arsenals of these two countries. Under Trump’s administration, there was little progress to extend it.

Scottish CND welcomes this start of the new US administration, but additional steps will be needed to make progress on disarmament. Throughout the time of the New START agreement Russia and the United States have spent billions each year to build new nuclear weapons systems, but since the international community has negotiated, adopted and brought into force a treaty (the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – TPNW) banning nuclear weapons.

Staying at the current nuclear weapons levels is not enough to protect the world from their catastrophic threats. With the New START quickly extended and the TPNW in force, the groundwork has been paved for significant disarmament advances in the coming four years. The nine nuclear-armed states have no excuses not to walk that path. Russia, the United States and all nuclear-armed nations must take active steps to move towards compliance with this international treaty and join it.