Trump signals he may let last US-Russia nuclear treaty expire

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump has suggested he would allow the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia to expire and instead pursue a broader deal that may include "a couple of other players," the New York Times reported Thursday.

The New START treaty, which took effect in 2011, limits each party's deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 and caps deployed delivery systems, including missiles, bombers and submarines, at 700. The pact is set to expire on Feb 5.

"If it expires, it expires," Trump told the newspaper in an interview conducted on Wednesday, suggesting he would reject Moscow's proposal to keep the treaty's limits in place.

"We'll just do a better agreement," Trump said. "You probably want to get a couple of other players involved also."

The treaty's expiration would leave the United States and Russia, the world's two largest nuclear powers, without binding limits on their nuclear arsenals for the first time in roughly half a century.

The treaty was originally set to last for 10 years. In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin and then US President Joe Biden agreed to extend the pact for five years, the final extension permitted under its terms.

Putin reportedly proposed in September that Russia could voluntarily continue observing the treaty if the United States was willing to do the same.