US to withdraw from nuke treaty
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump said Washington would exit the Cold Warera treaty that eliminated a class of nuclear weapons owing to Russian violations, triggering a warning of retaliatory measures from Moscow.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, negotiated by then-president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, required the elimination of short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles by both countries.
“Russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump said on Saturday after a rally in Nevada.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said yesterday that a unilateral US withdrawal would be “very dangerous” and lead to a “military-technical” retaliation.
US authorities believe Moscow is developing and has deployed a ground-launched system in breach of the INF treaty that could allow it to launch a nuclear strike on Europe at short notice. Russia has consistently denied any such violation.
Trump said the US would develop the weapons unless Russia and China agree to a halt on development.
China is not a party to the treaty and has invested heavily in conventional missiles, while the INF has banned US possession of groundlaunched ballistic missiles or cruise missiles of ranges between 500km and 5 500km.
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, will visit Moscow this week.
Ryabkov, in comments reported by state-controlled RIA news agency, said if the US withdrew, Russia would have no choice but to retaliate, including taking unspecified measures of a “military-technical nature. But we would rather things did not get that far”.
He claimed it was Washington and not Moscow that was failing to comply with the treaty and that the Trump administration was using the treaty in an attempt to blackmail the Kremlin, putting global security at risk. “We will, of course, accept no ultimatums or blackmail methods.”
British defence minister, Gavin Williamson, said London stood “resolute” behind Washington over the issue, and that the Kremlin was making a mockery of the agreement. |
Russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement so… we’re going to pull out