The California senator Dianne Feinstein urges the United States to renew the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty), according to the letter published in The New York Times.
The senator stressed that the United States and Russia account for 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. "Ending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the limits it imposes on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals is no way to advance nonproliferation. Likewise, the treaty’s limitations on nuclear weapons and its irreplaceable monitoring and verification regime are vital to arms control," Feinstein stressed.
"The United States should demonstrate global leadership by renewing New Start," she said. At the same time, the U.S. can begin "holding multilateral arms control discussions with other nuclear powers," the senator believes. "I support including China and other nuclear powers in future talks and agreements, but that should happen apart from an immediate extension of New Start," Dianne Feinstein concluded.
The New START Treaty was signed by Russia and the U.S. in 2010. It will expire in February 2021 unless U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree to extend it. The document can be extended for no more than five years, that is, until 2026, by mutual agreement of the parties. Moscow urges Washington not to postpone the decision on the extension of the Treaty, characterizing it as a gold standard in the disarmament sphere.
