Lawmakers call for review of Russia, China response to New START withdrawal

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are calling for a formal review of how Russia and China would respond to the U.S. withdrawing from the last remaining major arms treaty with Moscow, an option the White House is currently considering.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signaled that he is willing to negotiate an extension to the Obama-era New Strategic Arms Reduction treaty, widely known as New START, that is set to expire in February 2021.

But he has claimed that despite offers to continue the agreement, which limits the number of deployable American and Russian nuclear weapons at no more than 1,550, Moscow has yet to hear back.

“If New START is allowed to dissolve and no replacement agreement arises, the United States will find itself in an environment in which Russia’s nuclear arsenal is entirely unconstrained,” wrote Sens. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, Todd Young, Indiana Republican, and Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, in a letter to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

“We believe the negative consequences for the United States of abandoning New START, when Russia is in compliance with the treaty and is seeking to extend it, would be grave in the short-term and long-term,” they continued.

Critics of an extension have warned of Russia’s repeated violations of previous nuclear arms agreements, while a significant revamp of the deal would require a politically problematic ratification battle in the Senate. President Trump has also said he wants to include China in any new nuclear reduction deal, despite Beijing’s insistence it will not take part.

The Trump administration has already pulled the U.S. out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia dealing with shorter-range “tactical” nuclear weapons, over what the U.S. says is Moscow’s continued non-compliance with the terms of the Cold War-era pact.