August 23, 2018

The Trump administration is “very, very early in the process of considering” what it wants to do about the main existing arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, White House national security adviser John Bolton said Thursday after meeting with his Russian counterpart.

The New Start agreement, limiting both sides’ strategic nuclear arsenals, expires in early 2021. When he met with President Trump in Helsinki last month, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin said he was ready to implement a five-year extension built into the treaty.

Putin and Trump have spoken extensively about modernizing their separate nuclear arsenals, but the Trump administration has not indicated a position on the treaty limits.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bolton-and-his-russian-counterpart-discuss-arms-control-syria-and-iran/2018/08/23/626eb772-a6f6-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html?utm_term=.5896f6cbb727