A vital peace pact which prevents escalations in creating nuclear arms is set to end tomorrow (February 5). Donald Trump’s administration has not reportedly worked on finding a solution to the treaty, with negotiations stalling last month and not picked up from there. According to those familiar with the peace treaty developments, the president and his advisers are yet to even hold a conversation about what to do about the impending deadline, let alone how to resolve it. Writing in Slate, Fred Kaplan claimed those who knew of the New SMART expiry date were not in a position to bend to Trump’s demand that China be included in the next treaty arrangement. Such a suggestion could take years, according to Kaplan. He wrote, “If past is precedent, a new treaty would take at least a year to negotiate; if China takes part, something that has never happened before, it would take many years.”In the meantime, we may well see the renewal of a nuclear arms race, reversing a trend of the past half-century. The stunning thing is that, by all accounts, Trump and his advisers haven’t so much as held a conversation about the possibility or its implications for U.S. policy or the safety of the world.”Trump was flippant when asked about the treaty last month, saying, “If it expires, it expires. We’ll do a better agreement.”It’s worth recalling that when Trump scuttled the Iran nuclear deal back during his first term as president, he said that he—master of the “art of the deal”—would goad Tehran into accepting a ‘better’ deal. “This never happened. There is no reason to believe, especially given Washington’s tense relations with both Moscow and Beijing, that he’ll bring about a superior substitute for New START either.”An ex-Pentagon official had previously warned the expiration of the treaty may bolster Russia and its allies. Kingston Reiff warned the new START deal had offered valuable insight into what Russia had been doing with its military.He wrote, “So, my net assessment is the treaty reduced uncertainty about Russian strategic nuclear forces and provided us with greater confidence in our own nuclear plans and capabilities.”Since New START’s entry into force, there has been no real progress on further arms control measures. Moscow and Beijing deserve most of the blame for this. Charting a course to the next chapter will not be easy, but remains a necessary pursuit.”
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