Moscow Is Ready to Resume Nuclear Arms Talks With U.S., Shoigu Says

Moscow is prepared to resume nuclear arms control talks with the United States, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu told state media, more than two years after suspending participation in the last major arms treaty between the two countries.

“The Trump administration is currently demonstrating its readiness to resume dialogue on issues of strategic stability,” Shoigu told the state-run news agency TASS in an interview published Thursday.

Shoigu said any new arms control agreement would need to account for what he called growing threats to Russia, including NATO’s expansion, the U.S. global missile defense system and Washington’s deployment of intermediate- and short-range ground-based missiles.

He also pointed to French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent proposal to extend France’s nuclear deterrent to European allies as a development that must be factored into any future treaty.

“These actions create additional military threats for Russia,” Shoigu said. “That’s why we’re waiting for specific proposals from our American partners.”

President Vladimir Putin suspended Russian participation in the New START treaty in February 2023. The pact, signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, limited each side to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and was set to expire in 2026.

Shoigu blamed Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, for what he called the “irresponsible” policies that undermined New START and pushed Russia to step away from the treaty. Still, he claimed Moscow remains in compliance with the treaty’s numerical limits.

The Security Council chief also warned that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to Western aggression and said Moscow could resume nuclear weapons testing in response to U.S. actions.

Shoigu, who served as Russia’s defense minister for over a decade and oversaw the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, was replaced last year and now heads the country’s powerful Security Council, which advises Putin on national security matters.