The Trump administration’s announcement that it wants to renew a key nuclear weapons treaty with Russia, with some hefty revisions, has Democrats nervous that an overly ambitions U.S. negotiating strategy could doom the treaty and effectively end post-Cold War arms control efforts.
Keen to keep that from happening, Democrats are urging President Donald Trump to do a simple five-year extension of the 2010 New START accord, which is set to expire in 2021, and to scrap plans to get China to join the treaty and include more types of nuclear weapons not now covered, like Russia’s new nuclear-armed underwater drone.
“The New START treaty irreplaceability comes from the transparency, stability, and accountability it brings to the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals,” Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, one of Capitol Hill’s longest-serving advocates for arms control and nonproliferation, said in a statement. “As long as Russia continues meeting its treaty commitments, there is no logical reason why New START should not be extended.”
View the complete May 6 article by Rachel Oswald on The Roll Call website here.