ISTANBUL

China on Tuesday called on the US and Russia to resume implementation of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and to make substantive reductions to their nuclear arsenals.

“Sitting on the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal, the US and Russia should earnestly fulfill the special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament, resume the implementation of the treaty, discuss the follow-up arrangement, and further substantively slash (their) nuclear stockpile in a verifiable, reversible, and ethically binding way,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun.

Guo was responding to recent comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said on Monday that Russia is willing to observe the central quantitative limits of the New START Treaty between Moscow and Washington for a year after it expires in early 2026.

“China commands Russia's active stance on the New START treaty between the US and Russia,” Guo told reporters in Beijing, adding: “China’s stance is consistent.”

Putin made his remarks during a meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council in Moscow, warning that the treaty’s expiration on Feb. 5, 2026, would mark “the imminent demise of the last international agreement directly limiting nuclear missile capabilities.”

Putin argued that a complete rejection of the deal—originally signed in April 2010—would be wrong and “short-sighted” from many perspectives and would also negatively impact the goals of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia holds the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, with 5,459 warheads, followed by the US with 5,177. Together, the two nations account for approximately 90% of the world’s total nuclear weapons.

While China's stockpile remains significantly smaller, it is rapidly expanding, with SIPRI estimating that it will reach 600 warheads in 2025, the fastest expansion among all nuclear-armed states.

Nearly all nine nuclear-armed states—the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel—continued to modernize and expand their nuclear capabilities in 2024, according to the institute.

Despite a slight decline in the overall global inventory to 12,241 warheads, SIPRI warned that a “dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging."