US-Russia relations have been deteriorating for the last few years. The state of the bilateral arms control has also come under threat as a result of their increasingly adversarial relations, especially the landmark arms control treaties like the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty and the New START. There were expectations from the US-Russia Summit held in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018 of progress on bilateral relations, as well as on arms control.
There were positive signs of progress on the two main arms control treaties in place in the run up to the Summit, where US President Donald Trump said that he would discuss reductions to their nuclear weapons when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin. President Putin also said at the press conference after the Summit that his administration had given Americans a note with a specific number of suggestions on strategic stability and global security and non-proliferation and expressed a desire to work together on nuclear issues. This is absolutely vital in order to put some checks on the new nuclear arms race that both Russia and the US are all set to embark on.
