‘Sounds like a good idea’: Trump welcomes Putin’s voluntary nuclear arms-control proposal

US President Donald Trump on Sunday described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to voluntarily maintain limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons as a “good idea.”

Putin last month suggested that both countries uphold the caps established under the 2010 New START treaty, which is set to expire in February, provided the United States reciprocates.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House when asked about the proposal.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recently said Moscow was awaiting a formal response from Washington regarding the voluntary continuation of the nuclear limits once the treaty lapses.

Any such agreement would come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow, following reported Russian drone incursions into NATO airspace since Trump and Putin’s meeting in Alaska in mid-August.

In a video clip released on Sunday, Putin warned that US plans to supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, allowing strikes deep into Russian territory, would severely damage bilateral relations.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said last month that Washington was considering a Ukrainian request to obtain missiles that could strike deep into Russia, including Moscow, though it is unclear if a final decision has been made.

Trump, who has expressed disappointment in Putin for not moving to end the war in Ukraine, was not asked directly on Sunday about the prospect of supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine.

”This will lead to the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations,” Putin said in a video clip released on Sunday by Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

One U.S. official and three other sources told Reuters that the Trump administration’s desire to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine may not be viable because current inventories are committed to the U.S. Navy and other uses.

Trump is touring a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the George H.W. Bush, off the coast of Virginia on Sunday, and will give a speech on a second carrier, the Harry S. Truman, later.

Tomahawk cruise missiles have a range of 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles). If Ukraine got the missiles, the Kremlin and all of European Russia would be within target.