Trump plans to exit nuclear pact

The U.S. has long argued Russia is in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

The Trump administration is planning to tell Russian leaders next week that it is preparing to exit the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, according to U.S. officials and foreign diplomats.

President Donald Trump has been moving toward leaving the 3-decade-old treaty because Russia has been violating it for years and because it is constraining the United States from deploying new weapons to counter the growing arsenal of intermediate-range weapons that China has deployed in seeking greater influence in the Western Pacific.

The White House said that no official decision had been made to leave the treaty, known as INF, which was signed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and was considered a critical step in defusing Cold War tensions. In the coming weeks, Trump is expected to sign off on the decision, which would mark the first time he has scrapped a major arms control treaty.

The national security adviser, John Bolton, will warn the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on a trip to Moscow early next week that the United States will leave the treaty, officials said.

For the last four years, the United States has argued that Russia is in violation of the treaty because it has deployed a range of tactical nuclear weapons to intimidate former Soviet states that have aligned with the West. But President Barack Obama chose not to leave the agreement, not wanting to stoke a renewed arms race.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking at NATO headquarters earlier this month, signaled that the United States would not put up with the status quo for long.

“Russia must return to compliance with the INF Treaty or the U.S. will need to respond to its cavalier disregard for the treaty’s specific limits,” Mattis said. “The current situation with Russia in blatant violation of this treaty is untenable.”

The INF Treaty was seen as a high point in Cold War arms-control negotiations. Over the strong objections of many Europeans, the United States installed Pershing II intermediate-range missiles in Europe in the 1980s. The deployment put pressure on the Soviets that ultimately led Moscow to agree to eliminate all missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometers, including the Pershings.

At the end of the Obama administration, officials sought to use the disputeresolution mechanism within the treaty to resolve the disagreement, but to no avail.

The Trump administration has taken a more muscular approach. In an effort to step up pressure on Moscow, the Pentagon has begun research and development into a missile banned under the INF that the United States could test, produce and deploy upon the collapse of the treaty. Research and development is not prohibited by the pact.

Bolton’s plans signal that his National Security Council intends to unravel international accords it views as a constraint on American power, particularly if others are violating them.

“Across two administrations, the United States and our allies have attempted to bring Russia back into full and verifiable compliance with INF,” a senior administration official said in a statement, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the live nature of the talks. “Despite our objections, Russia continues to produce and field prohibited cruise misses and has ignored calls for transparency.”

Critics, while acknowledging Russian violations, say the Trump administration should first work to preserve the Cold War treaty instead of scrapping it after only a short number of meetings with Russian counterparts.

The Trump administration’s patience now seems to be running out as Bolton heads to Moscow on Saturday for talks.