Context:

Russian President proposed that Moscow and Washington extend their New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that expires in February.

More about the news

• The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) accord, signed in 2010and due to expire in February, restricts the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads that Russia and the United States can deploy as well as the missiles and bombers that carry them.
• A failure to extend the pact would remove all of the constraints, threatening to fuel a post-Cold War arms race and tensions between the world’s two largest nuclear weapons powers.
• Russia proposed to extend the accord for at least a year without imposing any conditions.

About New START Treaty

• The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is a treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on measures for the further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms.
• It is a successor to the START framework of 1991 (at the end of the Cold War) that limited both sides to 1,600 strategic delivery vehicles and 6,000 warheads.
• The treaty calls for halving the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers.  
• It does not limit the number of operationally inactive nuclear warheads stockpiled by Russia and the United States.