By Merve Aydogan
HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that the expiration of the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the US and Russia represents a "grave moment for international peace and security," ending decades of legally binding limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.
"The expiration of the New START Treaty, as of midnight today, marks a grave moment for international peace and security," Guterres said in a statement marking the treaty's expiry on Feb. 5.
He stressed that "for the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America, the two States that possess the overwhelming majority of the global stockpile of nuclear weapons."
Guterres said nuclear arms control between the two countries has long served as a stabilizing force, helping to prevent a catastrophe and reduce the risk of devastating miscalculation.
From the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to New START, he noted, bilateral agreements led to the reduction of thousands of nuclear weapons and improved global security.
"This dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time," he warned, emphasizing that "the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades."
He cautioned that the absence of verifiable limits on strategic arsenals increases global insecurity amid rising geopolitical tensions and rapid technological change.
Still, Guterres noted that the moment should also be seen as an opportunity to reset arms control efforts.
"The world now looks to the Russian Federation and the United States to translate words into action," he said, urging both sides to return to negotiations without delay and agree on a successor framework that "restores verifiable limits, reduces risks, and strengthens our collective security."
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague by the United States and Russia and entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011. It replaced the 1991 START I treaty, which expired in December 2009, and superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which terminated when New START entered into force, according to the US-based Arms Control Association.