Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bolton rejects Russia appeal to keep treaty
MOSCOW — The U.S. national security adviser rejected Russian entreaties Tuesday to remain committed to an arms control treaty signed more than three decades ago, threatening to deepen a new dispute between the Kremlin and President Donald Trump’s administration.
The adviser, John Bolton, suggested after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and other Russian officials in Moscow that no progress had been made in resolving Trump’s complaint that Russia has reneged on the pact, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Trump has said that because of what he described as Russia’s violations, the United States intends to abandon the treaty, signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. The pact
eliminated hundreds of nuclear missiles installed in Europe.
Bolton said the United States would present “in due course” an official notice leaving the treaty.
Russia has exhorted the United States to reconsider, saying such a decision could lead to a new nuclear arms race.
Bolton described the Cold War-era treaty as outdated because it does not include other nuclear powers, including China. But he suggested that it was unrealistic to include other countries in a broader version of the pact, saying at a news conference that such efforts had failed in the past.
“The treaty was outmoded, being violated and being ignored by other countries,” Bolton said. “Under that view, exactly one country was constrained by the [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty — the United States.”
He scoffed at critics’ claims that the U.S. pullout would be destabilizing, pointing at the U.S. pullback from another Cold War-era arms control pact — the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that was described as a cornerstone of strategic stability.
“It wasn’t true then, and it will not be true now with the withdrawal from this treaty,” he said.
He voiced skepticism that the treaty could be salvaged by forcing Russia to comply, pointing at Moscow’s denials.
“The American position is that Russia is in violation,” Bolton said at a news conference in response to a question about the treaty. “Russia’s position is that they are not in violation. So one has to ask how to ask the Russians to come back into compliance with something they don’t think they’re violating.”
The treaty has been hailed as a cornerstone of nonproliferation from the Cold War, helping eliminate more than 2,000 ground-based Soviet and U.S. missiles on the European continent. Under the 1987 agreement, the U.S. and the former Soviet Union committed to eliminate all ground-based nuclear and conventional missiles with a range 310 to 3,420 miles. Those close-up weapons were seen as placing decision-makers on a hair trigger to decide whether to retaliate against a perceived attack.
The European Union warned Trump of a potential impact on European security if he decided to go ahead and leave the treaty.
An EU statement Monday described the pact as an essential cornerstone of Europe’s security structure, adding, “the world doesn’t need a new arms race that would benefit no one and on the contrary, would bring even more instability.”
The U.S. plans to leave the treaty follows increased sanctions on Russia to punish the Kremlin for its 2016 election interference and for the attempted nerve-agent assassination of a former Russian spy in England earlier this year. Bolton said the administration hasn’t decided on a second wave of sanctions for Russia’s chemical weapons use scheduled for November.
“It’s sometimes surprising to see how the United States makes absolutely unprovoked steps with regard to Russia,” Putin told Bolton through a translator. “We practically haven’t reacted to a single one of your steps but they just go on and on.”
In a bit of dark humor that underscored the moment, Putin referred to Washington’s announced withdrawal from the pact and then quipped about the balance between peace and force represented by the Great Seal of the United States.
“As far as I can remember, the U.S. seal depicts an eagle on one side holding 13 arrows and on the other side an olive branch with 13 olives,” Putin said, sitting across from Bolton at talks before the news conference. “Here’s the question: Did your eagle already eat all the olives and only the arrows are left?”
“Hopefully I’ll have some answers for you,” Bolton replied. “But I didn’t bring any more olives.”
“That’s what I thought,” Putin said, provoking laughter from Bolton.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Tuesday that Trump took “a dangerous position” by deciding to abandon an existing nuclear weapons treaty with Russia without offering anything to replace it.
“Right now, we don’t have any prospects whatsoever for a new deal,” Peskov said. “It’s important to figure out if it’s possible or not.”
Other Russian officials also emphasized the need for dialogue in their meetings with Bolton.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu lauded Bolton for making a two-day visit and said that “even small steps will benefit our relations and help restore trust” between the two countries.
He added that Russia and the U.S. should build up their cooperation in Syria that helped to prevent major incidents in the sky or on the ground.
Bolton told Shoigu that he was in Moscow to work on Trump’s commitment to improve security cooperation with Russia.
“We certainly share your view that the U.S.-Russian discussions with respect to Syria have been useful, productive and professional, and we hope we can extend those conversations through a number of other ways that you mentioned, and even more,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, before they met privately, Putin told Bolton while reporters were present that he was open to another meeting with Trump and that it might be arranged on the sidelines of a coming international gathering.
“Of course, it would be useful to continue the direct dialogue with the president of the United States,” Putin said, and suggested meeting at an international gathering scheduled in Paris on Nov. 11 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
Bolton responded that Trump would be happy to meet, though it was unclear whether a meeting had been formally agreed upon.
The two leaders’ last meeting, held in Helsinki, Finland, in July with only interpreters present, touched off bipartisan criticism in Washington after Trump suggested at a news conference that he accepted Putin’s denials of election interference despite the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump later said he had misspoken.
“The treaty was outmoded, being violated and being ignored by other countries. Under that view, exactly one country was constrained by the [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty — the United States.” — National security adviser John Bolton