Moscow ready to cooperate with Washington on nuclear disarmament

Moscow considers dialogue between Russia and the US on nuclear disarmament necessary; the UK and France should take part in such negotiations as well, especially after Macron's statement about the possible protection of EU countries with French nuclear weapons, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Vitaly V. Kuzmin, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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A dialogue between Russia and the US on nuclear disarmament is necessary both from the perspective of national interests and international security, said Peskov, commenting on US President Donald Trump's statement about his desire to start denuclearization talks with Moscow.

Russia also believes that European nuclear powers – the UK and France in the first place – should take part in the negotiations, particularly in light of French President Emmanuel Macron's recent statement about his willingness to discuss the possible protection of other European countries with France's nuclear arsenal, Peskov added.

"It is impossible to exclude European nuclear arsenals from this dialogue. We remain convinced of this, and it is even more relevant now than before, especially given Mr. Macron's recent statement about France's intention to provide a nuclear umbrella for the security of European states. Some European countries, as we heard yesterday, were quick to support this idea. Therefore, indeed, European nuclear arsenals must be part of the discussion in such negotiations," the Kremlin spokesperson said.

Before Macron's statement, in February, leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, had advocated negotiations with France and the UK on "nuclear protection" amid concerns about a potential US troop withdrawal from Europe.

According to Trump, it "would be great" if "we all," including China, got rid of nuclear weapons. Peskov noted that Beijing's stance on this issue remains unknown, as there have been no discussions on nuclear disarmament between Russia, the US, and China so far.

"We have good relations with China, which we are developing and maintaining dialogue on all strategic stability issues. We will continue expanding this dialogue. The Americans have their own relations with China, and they must take Beijing's position into account. So far, there have been no concrete negotiations, and there is no understanding of when such talks might take place," Peskov said.

In mid-February, Trump stated that he wanted to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about the need to cut military spending and control nuclear weapons.

According to Trump, that money could be used for other things, which, hopefully, would be much more productive. There is no reason to spend nearly $1 trillion on military needs, Donald Trump believes. 

Putin supported Trump's idea of cutting Russia's and USA's defense spending by 50 percent. This is a positive proposal, Putin noted, adding that China's defense budget was a matter for Beijing to decide. Peskov emphasized that nuclear disarmament agreements between Russia and the US are in the interest of the entire world. He reiterated that Moscow is open to such dialogue, but "the ball is in the Americans' court."

According to last year's estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia and the US account for about 90 percent of the world's nuclear arsenal, while China has significantly expanded its stockpiles.

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Russia possesses a total of 5 580 nuclear warheads as of 2024, the largest confirmed stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world. Russia's deployed missiles (those actually ready to be launched) number about 1,710, also the largest confirmed strategically deployed arsenal in the world as of 2024. The remaining weapons are either in reserve stockpiles, or have been retired and are slated for dismantling. Russia's predecessor state, the Soviet Union, reached a peak stockpile of about 45,000 nuclear warheads in 1986. The number of weapons Russia may possess is currently controlled by the bilateral New START treaty with the United States. Russia and the United States are the world's biggest nuclear powers, holding about 88% of the world's nuclear weapons.

The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II against Japan. Before and during the Cold War, it conducted 1,054 nuclear tests, and tested many long-range nuclear weapons delivery systems. Between 1940 and 1996, the U.S. federal government spent at least US$11.7 trillion in present-day terms on nuclear weapons, including platforms development (aircraft, rockets and facilities), command and control, maintenance, waste management and administrative costs. It is estimated that the United States produced more than 70,000 nuclear warheads since 1945, more than all other nuclear weapon states combined. Until November 1962, the vast majority of U.S. nuclear tests were above ground. After the acceptance of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, all testing was relegated underground, in order to prevent the dispersion of nuclear fallout.