SpaceWar.com reports: “A top White House official on Friday offered to maintain current nuclear warhead limits with Russia, while making the case for putting rising power China at the center of future arms control efforts.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the comments in a speech at the annual National Arms Control Association meeting in Washington, as he outlined the attempt by Joe Biden administration to confront what he called ‘substantial’ and ‘deep’ cracks in the post-Cold War nuclear landscape.

With the last US-Russia arms control treaty — New START — largely moribund and due to expire in 2026, Sullivan said the United States is keen to forge a new treaty.

In the meantime, however, Washington wants the world’s two leading nuclear powers to preserve the core of that treaty — a limit for each of 1,550 warheads.

‘We’re prepared to stick to the central limits as long as Russia does,’ Sullivan said…”