Trump and Putin finalize the missile elimination treaty

Last February 2 Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Treaty on Intermediate Nuclear Forces, known internationally as INF by its acronym in English. Putin's reaction did not take long to take a similar step. A six-month deadline for the exit process has been set, which expires at the beginning of August.

This erroneous decision destroys what has been a key element in the mutual control of nuclear arsenals between the two states that hold 90% of the weapons.

(Read also: Trump breaks the nuclear agreement)

The FNI is a binding treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, which entered into force in 1988.. At that time the two powers committed to verifiably eliminate all their missiles short and medium range, between 500 and 1,000 km and between 1,000 and 5,500 km, from ground bases. Accompaniment of relaxation after the cold war 2,692 missiles were eliminated in both countries of these features, many of them fit to carry nuclear warheads.

Already in 2007, 2014 and 2017, USA denounced, both inside and outside NATO, violations of the treaty by Russia. In response, Russia accused the United States of violating the Treaty by deploying missile defense devices in Poland and Romania and developing unmanned aerial vehicles, which Moscow regards as offensive.

(Read also: Trump goes out into the world: NATO, the Middle East and the Vatican)

The elimination of these instruments without replacement by other big box stores creates serious loopholes that cause great international instability.

* Argentine physicist, international security expert, president of NPSGlobal.

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