US President Donald Trump plans to expand the country's nuclear capacity to prove Washington's leading position. He expressed concern the US has fallen behind in nuclear weapon capacity.
"We’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power," Reuters cited Trump as saying.
"It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack," he noted.
At the same time, the President questioned the treaties concluded with Russia, aimed at maintenance of strategic stability - the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).
In the interview, Trump called New START ‘a one-sided deal’. "Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it’s START, whether it’s the Iran deal … We’re going to start making good deals," he said.
In the same interview the Republican also complained about Russia’s deployment of a cruise missile in violation of an arms control treaty. He said he would raise the issue with Russia President Vladimir Putin when the pair meet.
The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the U.S. and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years.
On April 8, 2010, the United States and Russia signed New START, a legally binding, verifiable agreement that limits each side to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads deployed on 700 strategic delivery systems (ICBMs, SLBMs and heavy bombers), and limits deployed and nondeployed launchers to 800.
The U.S. Senate approved New START on Dec. 22, 2010. The approval process of the Russian parliament (passage by both the State Duma and Federation Council) was completed January 26, 2011. The treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011.
