Russia calls nuclear weapons the 'only' guarantee against global war as the last arms-control treaty lapses

Russia has said that nuclear weapons are the 'only' safeguard preventing the world from sliding into a global war, a statement made amid worries about a fresh arms race. The remark came from the Kremlin spokesperson at a foreign-policy forum in Moscow, who argued that the global security system was 'eroding' and that nuclear deterrence was now the main thing holding back a wider war. The facts here are reported neutrally, without endorsing any country's position.

The comment is significant because the last nuclear arms-control treaty between Russia and the United States, known as New START, expired in February with no replacement in sight. Arms-control treaties are agreements that cap the number of nuclear warheads and delivery systems each side can keep, and they allow inspections so each side can verify the other's numbers. New START limited the world's two largest nuclear powers; with it gone, those limits no longer apply, even though both sides have said they want to restart high-level military talks.

A further complication is China. The United States has pushed for any new treaty to also include China, whose nuclear arsenal is growing but is still far smaller than those of Russia or the United States. Beijing has publicly rejected that pressure. Russia, for its part, has suggested that if China is brought in, then the nuclear-armed allies of the United States should be included too. These disagreements make a new deal hard to reach.

For India, the lapse of arms control between the major powers matters for the broader disarmament and security environment. India is a nuclear-weapon state that is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and it follows a declared policy of credible minimum deterrence and 'no first use'. A weakening of global arms control can fuel a wider arms race and raise strategic risks in Asia, which is directly relevant to India's security planning.

For aspirants, this connects to the disarmament and international-relations sections of the syllabus. Key terms to remember: New START (the now-expired US-Russia treaty), nuclear deterrence, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and India's doctrine of credible minimum deterrence and no first use. Questions often test the difference between these treaties and India's nuclear posture.