US Representative Ted Deutch spoke to conference attendees about the role of the US Congress in nuclear disarmament. There were two take-aways from Congressman Deutch’s presentation that strongly resonated with conference attendees:

1. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, is set to expire in February 2021. The future of the treaty is ambiguous as the United States has asked for several conditions as a pre-requisite to extension that Russia is hesitant to agree to. If an agreement is not reached, this will be the first time since 1972 when the United States and Russia have not been subject to a binding, bilateral treaty on nuclear proliferation. This puts the security of the entire globe at risk.
2. One of the conditions requested by the United States is to expand the scope of New START to include China. Conference attendees agreed with the point made by Representative Deutch—while it is a noble goal to include China in this treaty, the extension of New START is far too important to allow negotiations to hinge upon the inclusion of another country. Rather, attendees agreed that New START should be extended and then other countries could be invited to join.

Representative Deutch concluded with a reminder of the importance of Congress in these negotiations and a call to reignite support of non-proliferation discussions.