U.S. President Donald Trump called on Thursday for the negotiation of a “new, enhanced, and modernized treaty” with Russia, following the expiration of the New Start nuclear arms control treaty, which limited the strategic arsenal and the number of launchers for both countries.

“Rather than extending the NEW START treaty (…) we should ask our nuclear experts to work on a new, enhanced, and modernized treaty that can endure into the future”

Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

He also noted:

“I completely rebuilt the military during my first term, including equipping it with new nuclear weapons and modernizing many others”

claiming to have prevented nuclear wars around the world.

The expiration of New Start marks a major turning point in the history of arms control since the Cold War and has raised renewed proliferation concerns.

Trump did not respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend the treaty’s limits by one year. Washington advocates including China, another major nuclear power, in any future arms control agreement, which Beijing rejected Thursday, arguing that its nuclear capabilities are “on a totally different scale” compared to the United States and Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that President Trump had “clearly stated in the past that achieving real 21st-century arms control would be impossible without including China, due to its considerable and rapidly expanding arsenal.”

Vladimir Putin, for his part, promised to act in a “thoughtful and responsible” manner to avoid a new arms race comparable to the Cold War while remaining open to negotiations.

Additionally, the U.S. and Russia decided on Thursday, during talks on the war in Ukraine held in Abu Dhabi, to resume a high-level military dialogue—a major step forward in bilateral relations.