On February 5th of 2021, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the only remaining U.S.-Russia arms control pact, will expire. Russia has already offered to extend the treaty, called New START for short, for up to five more years. However, Donald Trump does not want to extend the treaty or form a new one unless China signs onto a nuclear arms control accord as well.

Last month, Marshall Billingslea was appointed as the president’s special envoy for arms control. He told Time Magazine that he had his first secure phone call with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, his equivalent in Russia, where they agreed to meet to talk about their objectives and begin negotiations. However, Billingslea does not believe this to be easy, especially considering that the U.S. expects Russia to help bring China to negotiations. Although it seems that Russia agrees that China may eventually be a necessary participant in an arms treaty, as China is expected to double its nuclear weapons in the next decade.

Even so, tensions are growing high as time goes on, particularly with the Coronavirus pandemic preventing in-person negotiations, and Trump’s refusal to speak to President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, has stated that China has “no intention to participate” in trilateral arms control negotiations, like what the U.S. has been pushing for.

These negotiations must not wait any longer. Russia has indicated their interest in continuing the treaty, and China has indicated their disinterest in trilateral arms agreements. The players here have expressed their positions, except for the U.S., who must finally express themselves and begin negotiations with Russia in order to extend this absolutely necessary agreement. It is only after this extension of New START that the U.S. and Russia should even consider beginning to attempt to bring China into negotiations for trilateral arms control. Whether they work separately or together to communicate with China is their choice, but their goal for now should be to maintain their ability to clearly communicate and signal about their use and movement of nuclear weapons within their own territory. This communication will allow for a far easier maintenance of peace between the two countries, as proven by fifty years of treaties since the Cold War.

New START allows the U.S. and Russia to better communicate and signal between each other their goals and use of nuclear warheads and launchers. Its collapse would mean the first time in fifty years that the U.S. cannot inspect Russian nuclear forces, according to Rose Gottemoeller, a former Undersecretary of State for arms control and international security. To make matters worse, this is not the first arms control treaty with Russia that Trump has left. He gave a required six-month notice of the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies, and, last year, withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty banning production, testing, and deployment of intermediate-range land-based cruise and ballistic missiles. In both of these situations, Trump cited Russian violations for these withdrawals.

If Russia and America can successfully extend this treaty and potentially negotiate future treaties, they will put the world in a far better place moving forward, particularly considering nuclear non-proliferation and arms control treaties in general. America and Trump will be able to successfully signal their commitment to peace and the prevention of nuclear war, and Russia will be able to follow through on their previous signals showing their commitment to the same ideals. It is only after these countries successfully extend this treaty and signal their commitment to peace that they will ever be able to clearly and successfully communicate and negotiate a similar treaty with China.