If there is one thing that the United States can and should work with Russia on, it is arms control. Both countries, as the they have done in the past, can make the world safer by agreeing to limit nuclear stockpiles. Putin asked Trump to do this in Helsinki and Trump should take him up on that offer.
According to a Russian document obtained by Politico that detailed some topics for the summit between the two leaders, Putin proposed new talks on controlling nuclear arms and also discussed prohibiting weapons in space.
One concrete proposal in the document was a five-year extension for the New START Treaty. As I have written before, extending that treaty, which limits stockpiles of nuclear arms, would be good for both countries (and the world). Currently, the agreement is set to expire in 2021. An extension would be good through 2026 and would continue to limit both countries deployed warheads and missiles in addition to providing for routine notifications and inspections.
Other topics listed include references to “reaffirm commitment” to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (although both Russia and the United States have accused each other of violating the provisions of that treaty) and a new treaty that would bar weapons in space as well as calls for “strategic stability” talks.
These are all good ways for the U.S. and Russia to work together to limit nuclear weapons, and would be a positive outcome of the summit meeting that has, rightly, drawn much criticism.
Nuclear arms control is not the silver bullet to ensuring stability and security in the modern world. As pentagon officials have pointed out, modern threats to America include new technology such as AI and hypersonic missiles like the one China claims to have tested last week, and Russia says it tested earlier this year.
But limiting nuclear arms is still a good idea and would actually allow the U.S. to devote more resources to developing new technology of its own and defense systems to combat things like hypersonic missiles. This is because part of the New START arms control treaty gives the U.S. and Russia access to information about each other’s nuclear stockpiles, and the right to conduct inspections saving valuable time and energy that would otherwise go towards finding out this information.
Of course, it should be noted that just because traditional arms control talk was on the table does not lend insight into what other topics were discussed or specifics of the meeting. Since the White House has mostly refused comment on the summit, Americans, even government officials, remain in the dark, leaving many questions about Trump’s priorities unanswered.
