Top Trump adviser holds Moscow talks after US decision to quit arms treaty

DONALD TRUMP’S national security adviser is to hold two days of talks in Moscow after the US president announced his intention to withdraw from a landmark nuclear weapons treaty.

Mr Trump’s announcement that the US would leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, treaty brought sharp criticism from Russian officials and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who signed the treaty in 1987 with Ronald Reagan.

Mr Trump said Russia has violated terms of the treaty that prohibit the US and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying ground-launched nuclear cruise missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.

Russia has repeatedly denied allegations that it has produced and tested such a missile.

US national security adviser John Bolton and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet tomorrow. Today, Mr Bolton meets Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that leaving the treaty “would be a very dangerous step”. It would “cause the most serious condemnation from all members of the international community who are committed to security and stability”, he said.

Konstatin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, said that a US withdrawal from the treaty would mean “mankind is facing full chaos in the nuclear weapons sphere”.

“Washington’s desire to turn back politics cannot be supported. Not only Russia, but also all who cherish the world, especially a world without nuclear weapons, must declare this,” Mr Gorbachev said. British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the UK stands “absolutely resolute” with Washington on the issue and called on the Kremlin to “get its house in order”.