The Trump administration is looking for a foreign policy victory ahead of the November election in the form of nuclear concessions from Russia. The fate of the last nuclear arms control treaty hangs in the balance as the administration is leveraging its renewal to be tough on Moscow.
The New START limits the number of warheads each signatory can have deployed and includes a verification regime, and is set to expire in February 2021. Arms control talks between Washington and Moscow have been ongoing for months.
Moscow has repeatedly offered to extend the New START for five years without preconditions, as the treaty allows, but the US has so far rejected that offer. According to a report from CNN, the Trump administration has assessed that Russia is “desperate” to renew the New START and that they will be willing to make concessions to hold up the treaty.
President Trump’s envoy for the arms control talks, Marshall Billingslea, spoke with CNN. “What we have suggested to the Russians in terms of the way ahead is — in our view precisely that the Russians have a choice to make,” Billingslea said. “But they may find the price of admission goes up after November.”
The New START already allows up to 18 on-site inspections per year, but the US is demanding Russia concede to stricter verification. The Trump administration is also seeking a commitment from Russia that China will be part of the next arms control treaty.
Since the talks started, the US has insisted that China should be involved. But Beijing has no interest since both the US and Russia have vastly larger nuclear arsenals than China. Current estimates put China’s arsenal at around 300 warheads, the US and Russia both have about 6,000. The New START caps the number of warheads that can be deployed at 1,550.
When asked how Russia could get China to agree to trilateral arms control, Billingslea said, “It’s Vladimir Putin. He’s got all kinds of leverage.”
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said he plans to extend the New START and build new treaties on top of that. With the election approaching, Moscow will likely wait and see who wins on November 3rd.
These clowns are so stupid it boggles the mind. China isn’t going to sign on and Russia isn’t going to ask them to.
Yeah, that’s what they said about any chances for peace in the ME.
Seriously? So you bought the dog and pony show? Shocking!!!
Egypt, Jordan now joined by UAE and Bahrain
is progress and only the latest dominoes to fall.
Dumping the idiotic pretense that Palestinian claims are real
opens the door to peace in the region.
While “Antiwar” bloggers gnash their teeth, pure comedy!
Look at our foreign aid(bribes)and you might be able to figure out why the dominos are falling. But I doubt it. We gnash our teeth because we can see past our noses. You, obviously, can’t.
Whateve’s, you prefer endless wars then.
We cut aid to the Palestinians,
better spend here.
That doesn’t, and won’t, end our endless wars you fool. Might even spring a few more into action.
Ending the 70 yr. insanity of trying to placate Palestinians was all it took.
They can stand by themselves now,
the rest of the ME will move forward.
And how does that end our endless wars again?
stokr=neocon calls an arms deal “peace”…..
A true Trump man.
Not perfect, but you can’t name anyone better.
Anyone. There.
Still, not a name.
Anyone. Fill in the blank yourself.
See you can’t, lol.
Anyone. Your comprehension skills are lacking.
Another dodge, displaying how weak you are.
Look at your ballot when you vote. Anyone would be the other people not named Trump. Why was that so difficult to understand?
Never anything positive,
everything is bad because America-Israel (!),
hiding out in the antiwar echo chamber.
Adios
Guilty. I’ll stop when we stop.
Davy Sullivan=loonycon, calls full recognition and normalized relations with Israel anti-peace???
They’ve always stood alone but for God..
Jesus is Palestinian! 🇵🇸
Laughable and pathetic.
The level of stupidity is mind blowing.
“…..According to a report from CNN, the Trump administration has assessed that Russia is “desperate” to renew the New START….”
the US has been wrong about ‘reading’ Russia from 2002 up to this very day…. don’t make me laugh!
It is the Trump dummies that feel desperate to have something to show for 3-4 years of so little in ‘international relations’ – Plus they’ve irritated every single US ally and adversary, 99.9% of the time unnecessarily, most of all Russia, Iran and China. what can you expect to gain from that kind of behavior??
not a chance.
I can hardly believe that at this point in history Russia would give any “concessions” to a witless and unreliable US…. that just beggars belief.
and yes Russia will likely wait to see if Biden wins…..
In other words, Russia will be to blame, if China refuses, like it is her fault, that Ukraine is not complying to her commitments?
The US has no real interest in limiting Chinese nuclear weapons. Their numbers are already at minimum, by their own design of their own strategy.
What the US wants is to cripple China’s conventional weapons that could be used against Taiwan and/or sea denial off the China coast. Those are “dual use” weapons that could in theory carry nuclear warheads. In fact we know they carry conventional warheads meant to make Taiwan’s air bases unusable, and to hold US carriers at risk if they get anywhere near China what we know to be true is what we want to limit by false labeling of it as a nuclear weapons issue.