Quitting Yet Again
U.S. exit from nuclear treaty triggers concerns about new nuclear arms race
After months of signaling, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo finally announced on February 1 that the United States was withdrawing from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed with the former Soviet Union in 1987, effective in six months. The reason he gave was Russia’s “cheating.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with a tit-for-tat move, announcing that Russia will also pull out of the arms control pact due to U.S. violations.
The mutual recriminations about breaching the treaty, analysts say, indicate further deterioration of Russia-u.s. ties. The unilateral U.S. withdrawal also thwarts global efforts to control nuclear arms and could trigger a new arms race.
A flawed pact
The INF Treaty, signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary o f the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, led the two countries to agree to destroy all ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles of intermediate (1,0005,500 km) or short (500-1,000 km) range, and not to produce or deploy such weapons in the future.
It was a major compromise between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and played a significant role in maintaining security and stability, keeping nuclear missiles off European soil for nearly three decades, Shen Dingli, a professor on arms control at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, said.
However, it had some deficiencies too. For example, the INF Treaty applies to only land-based missiles of intermediate and short range. It does not cover sea-based or air-launched missiles. Moreover, the on-site verification period lasted only 13 years after the treaty came into force and there was no further verification deterrence, Shen pointed out.
Precisely due to such gaps, disputes began to emerge. The U.S. began to claim Russia breached the INF Treaty as early as 2014. Since October 2018, President Donald Trump began threatening to leave the treaty unless Russia complied with its terms. Despite months of negotiations to save the treaty, on January 31, the United States announced that the two countries had failed to reach an agreement and a day later, Pompeo announced the U.S. withdrawal.
Russia’s response
Shortly after the U.S. withdrawal announcement, Russia followed suit. “Our American partners announced that they are stopping their participation in the treaty, we will also stop. They announced that they are engaging in scientific research and development operations, we will do the same thing,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 2.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S. was trying to pin its own unilateral breach of the treaty on Russia, which was “unacceptable,” adding that the U.S. move was motivated by self-interest, not