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A senior Russian official said Moscow is ready to respond with military measures if the United States follows through on its proposal to deploy its Golden Dome missile defense program to Greenland.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, made the comments on Feb. 3 during a visit to China, according to Russian state news agencies. His comments came ahead of the expiration on Feb. 5 of the last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control pact between Washington and Moscow, known as the New START treaty.

“This is a new moment, a new reality − we are ready for it,” Ryabkov said in Beijing. He didn’t elaborate on what type of military response Russia might be considering to the U.S.’s missile defense plan for the Arctic island − an autonomous Danish territory − as New START expires, though he appeared to rule out an arms race. “I assure you, this is not going to happen,” he said. Russia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the matter.

President Donald Trump said last month he had agreed a “framework of a future deal” with NATO for Greenland and that this included talks about the missile defense program “as it pertains to Greenland.” That deal appears to have taken the immediate heat out of months of escalating tensions between Denmark, Greenland, its European allies, and Trump’s White House, which has vowed to gain control of the vast territory. However, few details about the agreement, which appears to have been made without Denmark’s involvement, have been publicly released.

The New START deal was signed during the Obama administration, in 2010, when Dmitry Medvedev was Russia’s president. The treaty sets limits on strategic nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear war: 1,550 on each side. Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, told Russian state media on Feb. 2 that if the New START treaty expired with no replacement then the world should be “alarmed.” He said it would mean that the world’s largest nuclear powers had no limits on their nuclear arsenals for the first time since the early 1970s.

The Trump administration envisions the Golden Dome project, which is inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, as a defense shield consisting of space and ground technology that stretches across Greenland.