US, Russia to resume high-level military talks

The United States and Russia have agreed to re-establish high-level military-to-military dialogue, the Pentagon said, hours after the expiration of the last treaty imposing limits on the pair's nuclear arsenals.
Russia has said it is no longer bound on the number of nuclear warheads it could deploy after the New START agreement ended on Thursday, formally releasing both Moscow and Washington from a raft of restrictions.
'Maintaining dialogue between militaries is an important factor in global stability and peace, which can only be achieved through strength, and provides a means for increased transparency and de-escalation,' the US military's European Command said in a statement.
The agreement to re-establish the military dialogue, suspended in 2021, also came after 'productive and constructive progress' at Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi attended by Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, European Command said.
Campaigners have warned the nuclear weapons treaty's demise could unleash a new arms race between the world's top nuclear powers, and encourage China to expand its arsenal. Nato urged 'responsibility and restraint.'
Meanwhile, China rejected calls to enter talks on a new nuclear treaty after a US-Russian agreement expired on Thursday, ending decades of restrictions on how many warheads the two powers can deploy.
Campaigners have warned that the expiry of the New START treaty could trigger a global arms race, urging nuclear powers to enter negotiations.
The US has said any new nuclear agreement would have to include China, whose nuclear arsenal is rapidly expanding.
China's foreign ministry joined a growing international chorus expressing regret on Thursday over the treaty's expiry, but said Beijing 'will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage'.
'China's nuclear capabilities are of a totally different scale as those of the United States and Russia,' foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news conference.
Russia and the United States together control more than 80 per cent of the world's nuclear warheads.
China's nuclear arsenal, meanwhile, is growing faster than any country's, by about 100 new warheads a year since 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
China is estimated to have at least 600 nuclear warheads, SIPRI says — well below the 800 each at which Russia and the United States were capped under New START. — AFP