UK DEFENCE MINISTER BACKS TRUMP MOVE TO EXIT NUCLEAR PACT

Britain’s defence secretary says the UK stands “absolutely resolute” with the United States as President Donald Trump announced he will pull out from a landmark arms control agreement with Russia.

Gavin Williamson blamed Russia for endangering the arms control pact, agreed between the US and the Soviet Union in 1987, and called on the Kremlin to “get its house in order.” Trump said he will exit the pact because Russia has violated it “for many years” and it’s preventing the US from developing new weapons. Backing Trump, Williamson told the Financial Times yesterday that Moscow had made a “mockery” of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The 1987 pact 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.