The potential demise of the last arms reduction treaty left standing – New START – will change the global situation and make the world a “more dangerous” place, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned.

Putin spoke about the imminent danger of a new unhindered arms race during a joint interview with RT Arabic, UAE-based Sky News Arabia, and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya broadcasters.

The New START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] is actually the only agreement that we have to prevent us from falling back into a full-scale arms race. It serves to further reduce and limit strategic offensive arms, that is to limit the entire range of strategic weapons, the entire strategic triad: land-, sea- and air-based combat inter-continental ballistic missile launchers.

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The agreement between the US and Russia, conceived in the 1980s, has been the cornerstone of international stability and arms control for nearly three decades. Its latest iteration is set to expire in 2021, and, so far, Washington has not responded to Moscow’s proposals on how to amend and extend the landmark treaty.

“This treaty expires in 2021. To make sure it is extended, we need to be working on it right now. We have already submitted our proposals; they are on the table of the US administration. There has been no answer so far,” Putin said, adding that it looks like the US has not decided yet whether it wants to extend the treaty at all.

Earlier this year, Washington withdrew from another major arms control deal, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The move was a “mistake” on the US’ part, Putin stated, explaining that even though the agreement only pertained to the US and Russia, while other nations were free to develop such weaponry, “it was not worth ruining the deal.”

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The potential demise of the last major arms control agreement will certainly make the world “more dangerous,” and cause other, rather unpredictable consequences, the Russian president warned.

If this treaty is not extended, the world will have no means of limiting the number of offensive weapons, and this is bad news. The situation will change, globally. It will become more precarious, and the world will be more dangerous and a much less predictable place than today.

Read the full interview here.

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