The vast majority of American voters believe President Trump should accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to maintain the limits on the US and Russia’s nuclear arsenals set by the New START treaty, the last piece of nuclear arms control between the two powers that’s set to expire on February 5, according to a YouGov poll.
New START caps the number of nuclear warheads either side can deploy at 1,550 and also limits the deployment of delivery systems. The treaty doesn’t allow further extensions, but Putin has offered that the US and Russia maintain the limits for another year to allow time for diplomacy to negotiate a replacement. So far, Trump hasn’t agreed to the proposal.
The poll, commissioned by ReThink Media and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, found that 87% of registered voters, including 86% of Republicans, believe the US should accept Russia’s offer. Even more respondents, 91%, agreed that the US should negotiate a new deal with Russia to maintain current nuclear limits or further reduce both countries’ nuclear weapons.
If New START expires without a replacement or temporary deal, there will no longer be any limits on the nuclear stockpiles of the world’s two largest nuclear powers. The poll found that 72% of registered voters believe that removing all nuclear limits on the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals would make the US less secure.
Russia said on January 29 that it was still waiting for a response from the US on extending the limits of New START. “We keep waiting, but the deadline is approaching. There was no response from the United States,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “The Kremlin’s position is well known, and it is consistent.”
In an interview with The New York Times in early January, Trump signaled he was ready to let the treaty expire and wasn’t concerned about potential consequences. “If it expires, it expires. We’ll do a better agreement,” he said.
Arms control experts have warned that negotiating a new agreement will take time and that ending the New START limits could spark a major new arms race and result in increased nuclear deployments.
“If Trump fails to respond positively to Russia’s proposal for an interim deal to maintain the New START limits, each side likely will begin increasing the size of its deployed nuclear arsenal for the first time in more than 35 years by uploading additional warheads on existing long-range missiles,” Daryl Kimball, Director of the Arms Control Association, wrote last month. “Many members of the nuclear-weapons establishment are lobbying for such a buildup.”
