US signals willingness to cooperate with Russia, China on nuclear cuts

US Vice President J.D. Vance has expressed Washington’s readiness to work with Russia, China, and other countries to reduce global nuclear stockpiles in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly.

Vance stressed that dialogue and collaboration, even with rivals, are essential to preventing a nuclear arms escalation, Caliber.Az reports.

“We're going to work with China and Russia and any country, whether they're friend or whether we're a little more competitive, to try to draw down the amount of nuclear weapons that exist in the world. I think that's the most important thing you could do for peace and stability,” he said.

The statement comes as the latest nuclear security treaty, New START, which forms a key pillar of US-Russia arms control efforts, expires on February 5, raising questions about the future of strategic stability.

New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010, by former US President Barack Obama and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and entered into force in 2011 as part of long-standing efforts to limit strategic nuclear arsenals.

The treaty imposed binding limits on deployed strategic warheads and delivery systems, while introducing verification measures such as on-site inspections and data exchanges to improve transparency and predictability between the two nuclear powers.

Under New START, each country is capped at 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery vehicles—including ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers—within an overall limit of 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers, using actual warhead counts rather than previous attribution rules for a more accurate reflection of nuclear forces.

Although the treaty was extended for five years in 2021, its verification mechanisms have been significantly weakened in recent years due to the suspension of mutual inspections amid rising geopolitical tensions, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

By Jeyhun Aghazada