What is the New START nuclear arms control treaty from which Russia suspends its participation?

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(CNN Spanish) --

It seemed impossible that New START, the most ambitious nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, would survive the tension between these two powers that came with the war in Ukraine.

That the treaty, which sets limits on the total number of nuclear weapons deployed and enables verification inspections at each country's facilities, has lasted for almost a year in this situation is evidence of its enormous importance for international security.

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But, finally, Russia announced this Tuesday that it was suspending its participation in New START, which, after its last extension, was valid until February 4, 2026.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, clarified that his country was not withdrawing from the treaty, a difference that seems rhetorical, since the effects are the same, but it is another evidence of the importance of the agreement: negotiations are not yet ruled out.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said the decision was "deeply unfortunate and irresponsible" but that his country was willing to talk "at any time with Russia, regardless of anything else that happens in the world."

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What is NewSTART?

The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed by the United States and Russia on April 8, 2010, and entered into force on February 5, 2011, according to the non-war organization. proliferation and Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).

This is the latest element in a series of arms control agreements between the two powers that began in the late Cold War and accelerated after the fall of the Soviet Union, thus replacing the START I and START treaties. II, signed in 1991 and 1993, and the most recent Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), signed in 2002.

The New START, whose initial duration was 10 years and was extended for a further five years in 2021, is a complex treaty with numerous protocols, but it can be divided into two major obligations.

A Russian Yars ICBM launcher is paraded through Red Square on May 7, 2022. New START limits this type of weapon (Credit: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)

First, it limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads (ie ready-to-use and not in storage) to 1,550, with a seven-year deadline to fulfill this obligation.

It also limits the number of launch assets (ICBMs, submarine-fired ballistic missiles, and bombers) to 800, and the number deployed and ready for use to 700.

The number of warheads may seem excessively large, but at the height of the Cold War the United States had 31,255 warheads and the Soviet Union (of which Russia is the heir) 40,159, according to data from the Federation of American Scientists ( FAS, in English).

According to 2022 data collected by the Stockholm International Institute for Peace Studies (SIPRI), neither of the two powers had reached this reduction.

The United States has 1,744 warheads deployed, and Russia 1,588.

The treaty does not limit warheads in storage or in the process of being dismantled, and in total the United States has 5,428 warheads of all types and Russia 5,977.  

The second major pillar of New START is that it contemplates measures to verify compliance with the Treaty, including periodic exchanges of information and up to 18 annual visits to each country's nuclear facilities.

New START also limits delivery means, like this American B-2 bomber.

This is the current most contentious point, since the United States and Russia are openly at odds over the war in Ukraine, in which Washington supports Kyiv militarily.

Why is New START important?

The development of nuclear weapons by the United States during World War II, culminating in the successful Trinity test and their first military use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all occurring in 1945, ignited a desperate arms race between the most powerful countries in the world to control this revolutionary technology, capable of causing destruction never seen before.

The Soviet Union obtained the technology in 1949, the United Kingdom in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964.

The rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world generated a change in the balance of power and in the doctrines of these countries, but also set off alarm bells about the danger of having such powerful weapons that, in theory, could lead to destruction. of all participants in a potential conflict.

This led to the start of two long traditions: the movement to ban nuclear weapons, which has not met with much acceptance among the powers, and currents promoting arms control and non-proliferation.

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The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), opened for signature in 1968 and protected by the UN, is the main instrument of this second current.

It has been signed by most of the world's countries and prohibits the development of nuclear weapons, except for the so-called "nuclear-armed states" (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China), and establishes a gradual program towards the reduction of arsenals.

This point about "nuclearly armed states", which in effect regulates inequality, is the most criticized, especially by the promoters of the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, which is not widely accepted.

Since then, several countries—India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea—have even developed nuclear weapons (and therefore do not belong to the NPT).

But beyond its criticism, the NPT began a long tradition of treaties to reduce, though not abolish, the number of nuclear weapons, in an attempt to limit the chances of nuclear war.

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The United States and the Soviet Union began their first serious negotiations in this area in the 1980s, when the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed in 1987 and the START I talks began.

After the fall of the USSR in 1991, Russia maintained START I and INF with the United States, and even deepened its arms control efforts with SORT, the 2002 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, and eventually New START. .

The United States, however, withdrew from the INF in 2019 and from the Open Skies Treaty in 2020, during the presidency of Donald Trump, and now the suspension of New START by Russia seems to confirm the regressive trend in terms of arms control. nuclear.

And that's not good news for the world.

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