The New START Treaty
Context :
- On February 23, on the eve of the first anniversary of his country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was unilaterally suspending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S., stating that the West was trying to destroy Russia.
- Making the announcement at the end of his nearly two-hour-long state of the-nation address to Russian lawmakers, Mr. Putin said that Moscow ought to stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does.
- This move would end a global ban in place on nuclear weapons tests since Cold War times.
- In response, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Mr. Putin’s move was “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible”.
What is the New START nuclear treaty?
- The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), signed in 1991, expired in late 2009 and another treaty, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT or Moscow Treaty), was signed in 2002.
- However, the New START treaty replaced the 2002 pact and was the last remaining nuclear weapons control agreement between the two powers who together hold 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.
- The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by former U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and came into force in February 2011.
- It was extended for five years when current U.S. President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
- Under the Treaty, America and Russia cannot deploy more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and more than 700 long-range missiles and bombers.
- It also limits each country to 800 deployed and nondeployed launchers and delivery vehicles.
- Additionally, it allows each side to carry out up to 18 short-notice (32 hours) on-site inspections of strategic nuclear weapons sites annually to ensure that the other country had not crossed the limits of the treaty.
- Under the agreement, Russia and the U.S. exchange data twice a year on ballistic missiles under the treaty’s purview and on bombers, test sites, nuclear bases etc.
- The treaty also mandates the two parties to send notifications within five days if they change or update something in their stockpile, like moving missiles to a new base or deploying a new warhead to the system.
- In 2018, both nations met the arms limits prescribed by the pact.
- Inspections under the treaty, however, have stalled in the past three years.
- They were first put on hold in March 2020 owing to the COVID19 pandemic.
- Moscow and Washington were due to discuss the restarting of inspections in November 2022, but this was postponed by Mr. Putin.
- There has been no development in this regard since.
Implications of the move :
- Notably, since Mr. Putin has not withdrawn from the treaty and just ‘suspended’ it, which is a term not defined in the official pact, analysts are saying the move would not immediately trigger an arms race between the two powers.
- It could be a part of Russia’s political messaging amid the West’s massive assistance to Ukraine amid the yearlong conflict.
- Evidently, the Russian administration also announced that it does not plan to breach the limits on warheads prescribed in New START.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry said that it would continue notifying Washington of planned test launches of inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
- Observers say the move not only disturbs the fragile calculus of nuclear arms controls between the two largest nuclear powers but could also give an opportunity to other nuclear-armed countries, especially China and others like Pakistan, Iran, Israel, and India among others, to increase their arsenals.
SOURCE : THE HINDU
Syllabus : Mains; GS2 – International Relations
