The Trump administration is weighing a face-saving strategy for keeping an Obama-era nuclear treaty from expiring while it pursues a more sweeping arms pact with both Russia and China
, according to current and former administration officials with direct knowledge of the deliberations.
The administration's potential approach has gained traction in recent weeks as the Trump administration faces growing criticism that Trump’s goal of negotiating a broader nuclear treaty with both Moscow and Beijing before New START expires is unrealistic and, if it fails, risks igniting a full-blown nuclear arms race.
"A six-month extension to buy yourself some time to negotiate something new with the Russians — and call on the Chinese to join — inherently isn't bad," said Wolfsthal, who is now a senior adviser to Global Zero, a disarmament group. "It might be a way to square the circle — if you can also be sure that the next administration has the leeway to extend [New START] more."
“This is crucial because we’re talking about two countries with abysmal track records in terms of treaty compliance,” Marshall Billingslea, Trump's special envoy for arms control,“Russia has violated nearly every single agreement we’ve ever had with them — and the Chinese stand in violation of a number of agreements that they’ve also signed.”
An even more controversial move would be to pursue a new agreement with Moscow that doesn't clearly spell out how compliance would be guaranteed. But a major element at the time was that START I, which predated New START, was still in place for seven more years, and the Moscow Treaty was able to piggyback on its verification measures.
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