Russia says it will stick to limits of expired nuclear treaty if US does

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not say why he believed the US would respect the limits set out in New START.Published On 11 Feb 2026Russia has said it will abide by limits on its nuclear weapons as set out in a lapsed arms control treaty with the United States, as long as Washington continues to do the same.The New START agreement expired earlier this month, leaving the world’s two biggest nuclear-armed powers with no binding constraints on their strategic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century and sparking fears of a new global arms race.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3No evidence to support US claim China conducted nuclear blast test: Monitorlist 2 of 3Iran calls for respect, says it’s ready for nuclear-focused talkslist 3 of 3US strikes civil nuclear agreement with Armenia, Russia’s former close allyend of listIn an address to parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow was in no rush to start developing and deploying more weapons – backtracking on comments made by his ministry last week that said Russia considered itself no longer bound by the treaty’s terms.“We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, which was announced by our president, remains in effect, but only while the United States does not exceed the outlined limits,” said Lavrov.“We have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to abandon these limits and that they will be observed for the foreseeable future,” he said, without explaining the basis for that assumption.US President Donald Trump rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to voluntarily abide by the limits set out in New START for another year, saying he wanted a “new, improved and modernised” treaty rather than an extension of the old one.Russia has also indicated it wants to strike a new arms control agreement.Washington is pushing for China to be included in the talks, pointing to its growing nuclear arsenal.