Prez: I’ll junk ’87 arms pact

President Trump said Saturday he will exit a landmark arms-control agreement the United States signed in 1987 with the then -Soviet Union, saying that Russia is violating the pact and it’s preventing the US from developing new weapons.

The treaty, intended to protect the security of the US and its allies in Europe and the Far East, prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.

“Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years,” Trump said after a rally in Elko, Nev.

“And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to.”

The agreement has constrained the US from developing new weapons, but America will keep working on them unless Russia and China agree not to build them, Trump said.

China is not currently party to the pact.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s re- ally get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons. But if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable,” he said.

National Security Adviser John Bolton was headed Saturday to Russia and the former Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

His first stop is Moscow, where he’ll meet with Russian leaders, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

His visit comes at a time when Moscow-Washington relations remain frosty over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign and next month’s midterm elections.

There was no comment from the Kremlin or the Russian Foreign Ministry on Trump's announcement.

Trump didn’t provide details about violations, but in 2017, White House national security officials said Russia had deployed a cruise missile in violation of the treaty, an accusation the Obama administration had also made earlier.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it has violated the treaty and has accused the US of noncompliance. It says US missile defenses in Europe violate the pact.