By Oyintari Ben
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday that the United States does not think expanding its nuclear weapons is necessary to prevent the combined forces of Russia, China, and other rivals.
He said that if Russia follows suit, the United States will adhere to the New START treaty’s nuclear weapons restrictions until they expire in 2026. Sullivan made the comments during a speech in which he urged Moscow and Beijing to engage in arms control negotiations.
“The United States does not need to increase our nuclear forces to outnumber the combined total of our competitors in order to successfully deter them,” Sullivan said in a speech to the Arms Control Association, the first and foremost arms control advocacy organisation in the United States.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, said in February that Moscow was suspending its participation in New START, the last agreement restricting strategic nuclear weapons between the United States and Russia.
“While claiming to suspend New START, Russia has also made a public commitment to abide by the treaty’s basic limitations, suggesting a potential willingness to keep restricting strategic nuclear weapons through 2026. We concur,” Sullivan said.
He stated, “We are prepared to stay to the core bounds as long as Russia does. Engaging in an open-ended rivalry in strategic forces is not in the interests of any of our countries. The United States is prepared to engage Russia now, to manage nuclear dangers and create an arms control framework for the period after 2026, rather than waiting until all of our bilateral disputes have been settled.
