Trump has released the United States from the arms treaty …

The United States officially left the Middle-Range Nuclear Weapons (NIC) Treaty on Friday after accusing Moscow of not respecting it for years. This decision paves the way for a new arms race against Russia and China.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the demise of the treaty a dangerous step "It will probably increase, not reduce, the threat posed by ballistic missiles". "When it expires tomorrow, the world will lose a precious brake on nuclear war," he said on Thursday.

Cross accusations between Washington and Moscow

The government of US President Donald Trump said the treaty was already dead because of violations of Russia, a charge denied by the country.

"The INF Treaty has been useful to us, but it only works if both parties respect it", The Pentagon's new chief, Mark Esper, recently said. "The United States will respect the treaty and all their obligations until August 2, and then we will do what is right for us," he told the Senate.

On February 1, Washington launched the withdrawal of this bilateral agreement signed during the Cold War, a six-month process. After that, On July 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin ratified the suspension of Russia's participation in the agreement.

The withdrawal of both countries puts an end to the INF Treaty, which, by banning the use of missiles with a range of 500 to 5 500 km, had eliminated US SS20 Russian and Pershing ballistic missiles deployed in Europe.

Europeans have worried about the risk of a new arms race on their continent, but NATO supported the US position, alleging that the Russian missile 9M729 violated the INF Treaty. Moscow denied these accusations and claimed that its new weapon had a maximum range of 480 km.

A new treaty?

On Thursday, Trump told reporters that the FNI issue was not even mentioned when he spoke on the phone with Putin on Wednesday about forest fires in Russia.

However, he vaguely suggested that a new treaty could be created. "Russia would like to do something about a nuclear treaty and that is fine for me. They would like to do something and me too, "he said.

With the missiles looking at China

"The bulk of China's arsenal consists of intermediate-range missiles and we must be sure to have the same capabilities if, unfortunately, we are in conflict with them one day "Esper stressed.

When Senator Mark Milley, the next Chief of Staff, questioned by senators about the end of the NIF treaty, said deployment of medium-range conventional land-based missiles in the Indo-Pacific region.