Latest news with #nucleararms
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Russia sees little chance of saving nuclear arms pact given ‘ruined' ties with US
Russia sees little chance of saving its last nuclear accord with the United States, due to expire in eight months, given the 'ruined' state of relations with Washington, its top arms control official said in an interview published on Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told TASS news agency that President Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense project was a 'deeply destabilizing' factor creating formidable new obstacles to arms control. His comments were among Moscow's bleakest yet about the prospects for the New START agreement, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, which caps the number of strategic warheads that each side can deploy. President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine, although he said that Russia would remain within the treaty's limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes. But if the treaty is not extended or replaced after it expires on February 5 next year, security experts fear it could fuel a new arms race at a time of acute international tension over the conflict in Ukraine, which both Putin and Trump have said could lead to World War Three. The Federation of American Scientists, an authoritative source on arms control, says that if Russia decided to abandon the treaty limits, it could theoretically increase its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to 60 percent by uploading hundreds of additional warheads. Ryabkov described Russia-US ties as 'simply in ruins.' 'There are no grounds for a full-scale resumption of New START in the current circumstances. And given that the treaty ends its life cycle in about eight months, talking about the realism of such a scenario is increasingly losing its meaning,' Ryabkov told TASS. 'Of course, deeply destabilizing programs like the Golden Dome - and the US is implementing a number of them - create additional, hard-to-overcome obstacles to the constructive consideration of any potential initiatives in the field of nuclear missile arms control, when and if it comes to that.' Trump said last month he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome project, which aims to block threats from China and Russia by creating a network of satellites, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles. Analysts say the initiative could sharply escalate the militarisation of space, prompting other countries to place similar systems there or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield. Ryabkov's comments came in the same week that Ukraine stunned Moscow by launching drone strikes on air bases deep inside Russia that house the heavy bomber planes that form part of its nuclear deterrent. Russia has said it will retaliate as and when its military sees fit.
New York Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Sharp Hike in Nuclear Arms Budget Sought as Science Funding Is Slashed
The White House is asking Congress for a major jump in the nation's budget for designing, making, maintaining and reconditioning its nuclear arms. According to a budget justification sent in recent days to Congress, the Trump administration wants the annual spending on the weapon activities of the National Nuclear Security Administration to increase from $19 billion this year to roughly $30 billion in the 2026 fiscal year, a rise of 58 percent. The document calls the hike 'a historic investment' in the nuclear enterprise. Currently, the complex of facilities employs 65,500 people at eight main sites from coast to coast. The justification document was sent to Congress by the Energy Department, which oversees the semiautonomous nuclear security agency. The White House request comes as the Trump administration seeks to slash budgets in many other agencies that specialize in scientific research, including NASA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. Critics have accused the administration of cutting back research at the forefront of human knowledge, and the proposed nuclear investment seems likely to intensify those objections. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
