Trump To Pull US Out Of Nuke Treaty With Russia

NBC News reports:

President Donald Trump said Saturday night that he will withdraw from a landmark arms control agreement the United States signed with the Soviet Union, accusing Russia of violating the pact. The Cold War-era treaty required both countries to eliminate short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles from their arsenals.

“Russia has not, unfortunately, honored the agreement, so we’re going to terminate the agreement, and we’re going to pull out,” Trump told reporters after a rally in Nevada.

The agreement has constrained the U.S. from developing new weapons, but Trump said Saturday that the U.S. would begin developing them unless Russia and China agree not to possess or develop the weapons. China is not currently party to the pact.

The BBC reports:



Russia has condemned US plans to withdraw from a Cold War-era nuclear weapons treaty and threatened to retaliate for a “very dangerous step”. On Saturday, President Trump said he intended to “terminate” the three-decade-old 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. He said Russia had been “violating it for many years”.

The deal banned ground-launched medium-range missiles, with a range of between 500 and 5,500km (310-3,400 miles). “This would be a very dangerous step that, I’m sure, not only will not be comprehended by the international community but will provoke serious condemnation,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.