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The Foreign Relations Committee, the United States Senate will come to order. Welcome, everyone. We have a good hearing this morning on a very important issue, some great witnesses to testify. I'm sure we're going to have a spirited discussion on this. To those of you who joined us this morning, thank you so much. This is an open hearing. We're always glad to have you, always glad to have you here. come and watch the proceedings, but not participate. As everyone knows, we have a zero tolerance on any attempt to either contact or influence anybody at the dais or the witnesses, and the usual rules will apply. You'll be immediately arrested, removed, and banned from the committee for a year. So I hope we don't have to do that. It's only been a rare occasion we have, and that's a good thing. So with that, today we're going to talk about arms control. And I want to thank our witnesses, Mr. Billingsley and Ms. Gottmiller, for being here today to discuss what could be defined as one of the most existential issues of our time. Both of you have been doing this for a long time and have advised us on both sides of the dais here on this issue. America is currently experiencing an unprecedented increase in the nuclear threat posed by our adversaries around the world. For the first time in our history, we faced two peer nuclear powers in both Russia and China, but also threats from multiple smaller, unstable nuclear powers like North Korea and aspiring nuclear powers like Iran. While it has suspended its New START obligations and continues to test and develop nuclear Russia's nuclear triad of ICBMs, SLBMs, and nuclear-capable strategic bombers is nearing full modernization. For years, Russia has consistently failed to comply with nuclear agreements and instead uses arms control talks to constrain U.S. policy towards Russia and pursue concessions on issues far beyond just nuclear weapons.
It used this strategy successfully on President Obama with New START. It used it on Biden in the Strategic Stability Dialogue in the lead-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And Russia tried and failed to pull the same tricks on the Trump administration. We can be sure the Russians will try again, endangering the safety of the American people and further eroding global stability. Meanwhile, China is in the midst of a dramatic nuclear buildup and has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal of any nuclear-armed state. And while China races to nuclear parity with the U.S., it shows little to no interest in arms control talks. But as troubling as these developments from Russia and China are, we cannot take our eye off rogue states with nuclear ambitions. Fortunately, President Trump took action to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this year. By doing so, he prevented a dangerous, ideologically driven Islamic autocracy from acquiring a nuclear weapon that could threaten the U.S., Israel, and others around the world. But the Iranian regime won't stop there, and we need to stay vigilant. Like his neighbor in China, Kim Jong-un has repeatedly rejected talks on denuclearization, even as he pursues a full-scale expansion of North Korean nuclear strike capabilities. More concerningly, in return for North Korea's direct support for Russia's war in Ukraine, Russia is likely providing technical expertise on advanced space and military capabilities that will boost North Korea's nuclear ambitions. To quote the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, on which both of our witnesses have served, we are in a, quote, decisive decade, end quote, in regards to our nuclear future. Let's be crystal clear. The Cold War nuclear arms control paradigm is dead. Our adversaries have ensured this outcome. In this decade, we will have no choice but to confront the reality that the old arms control architecture is gone.
constrains our nuclear arsenal and allows Russia and China to exploit our goodwill. As President Trump has said many times, our goal is peace through strength. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. simply extended existing nuclear agreements like New START without attempting to improve them or even enforce them, only to have Russia suspend its commitments after invading Ukraine. With New START expiring in February, we must seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead on any new arms control negotiations with Russia. It's time to move beyond blind faith in Putin and take the reins on our nuclear future. To counter China, we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal. For far too long, underinvestment in our nuclear triad has only created greater insecurity. It is time we modernize the triad and reestablish a strong, credible deterrent.
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