<figure id="attachment_3193657" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3193657" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3193657 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/7f7722ab-antonio-guterre-fmt-271025.webp" alt="Antonio Guterres" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3193657" class="wp-caption-text">UN chief Antonio Guterres said the expiry of the US-Russia nuclear deal could not come at a worse time, with nuclear risks the highest in a decade.</figcaption></figure>
UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the United States and Russia to quickly sign a new nuclear deal, as the existing treaty was set to expire in a &#8220;grave moment for international peace and security.&#8221;
The New START agreement will end Thursday, formally releasing both Moscow and Washington from a raft of restrictions on their nuclear arsenals.
&#8220;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,&#8221; Guterres said in a statement.
The UN secretary-general added that New START and other arms control treaties had &#8220;drastically improved the security of all peoples.&#8221;
&#8220;This dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time &#8211; the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades,&#8221; he said, without giving more details.
Guterres urged Washington and Moscow &#8220;to return to the negotiating table without delay and to agree upon a successor framework.&#8221;
Russia and the United States together control more than 80% of the world&#8217;s nuclear warheads but arms agreements have been withering away.
New START, first signed in 2010, limited each side&#8217;s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads &#8211; a reduction of nearly 30% from the previous limit set in 2002.
It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other&#8217;s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.

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