№ 5, 2024. Russia Forced to Develop Global Prompt Strike Weapons

One of the burning issues during the United States and Russian negotiations of the New START treaty was the issue of non-nuclear strategic offensive arms, which we sometimes call strategic offensive arms in non-nuclear configuration. It would be wrong to say that the issue of GPSW came as a surprise for Russian negotiators during work on the New START treaty, for it had not been there before. It is important to point out that the New START treaty, as well as START I, is a treaty on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. It is not a coincidence that the word ‘‘nuclear’’ is not here. It is not an omission on the part of the delegations, but the result of an uneasy compromise with the United States that has always tended to have new arrangements which would not relate to so-called conventional arms nor cover GPSW, but would apply only to nuclear weapons.