[ad_1]
Britain says that it is "absolutely resolved" with the United States, while Germany calls Trump's move "regrettable".
Heiko Maas said Sunday in a statement that the three-decade-old Middle-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was "an important pillar of our European security architecture" and that Trump's announcement "raises tough questions for us and Europe ".
The 1987 pact prohibits the United States and Russia from owning, producing, or testing a ground-based cruise missile with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.
Maas says that Germany has repeatedly asked Moscow to "clarify serious allegations of violation of the INF Treaty, which Russia has not yet done".
According to him, Germany asks Washington to "take into account the possible consequences" of its decision, including for a treaty of nuclear disarmament concluded by the United States beyond 2021.
The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty helps to protect the security of the United States and its allies in Europe and the Far East. It prohibits the United States and Russia from owning, producing or testing a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.
"Russia has violated this agreement.It has been many years since it's violated," Trump said Saturday after a rally in Elko, Nevada. "And we will not let them violate a nuclear deal and go out and make weapons and we are not allowed to do that."
The agreement has prevented the United States from developing new weapons, but the United States will start developing them unless Russia and China agree not to own or develop these weapons said Trump. China is not party to the pact.
"We will have to develop these weapons, unless Russia comes to see us and China comes to see us and we all come to ask us to be smart and not to develop these weapons, but if Russia is doing it and if China does it and we adhere to it, it is unacceptable, "he said.
Trump sends his national security adviser, John Bolton, to Moscow to meet Russian leaders, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, to announce Trump's decision .
"This would be a very dangerous step," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Tbad news agency on Sunday. He added that a withdrawal from the United States "will result in the most serious condemnation of all members of the international community committed to security and stability".
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Trump's decision was "regrettable", that the treaty was "an important pillar of our European security architecture" and that a "withdrawal" was raising difficult questions for us and for Europe ". Maas also said that Germany has repeatedly asked Moscow to "clarify the allegations of violation of the INF Treaty, which Russia has not yet done".
But British Secretary of Defense Gavin Williamson said his country was "absolutely resolute" with the United States in the treaty dispute. Williamson accused Russia of endangering the arms control pact and called on the Kremlin to "put its affairs in order".
Williamson told the Financial Times Sunday that Moscow had "ridiculed" the Mid-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
US-Russian relations are already strained as a result of the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race and the upcoming elections mid-term in the United States.
Trump did not provide details of the violations. But in 2017, national security officials at the White House said that Russia had deployed a cruise missile in violation of the treaty. Earlier, the Obama administration had accused the Russians of violating the pact by developing and testing a banned cruise missile.
Russia repeatedly denied having violated the treaty and accused the United States of not complying with it.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis had previously suggested that a proposal by the Trump administration to add a cruise missile launched at sea to the US nuclear arsenal could give United States a way to persuade Russia to join the arms treaty.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in February that the country would consider using nuclear weapons only in response to a nuclear attack or other weapon of mbad destruction, or to response to a non-nuclear badault endangering the survival of the Russian nation.
An independent Russian political badyst, Dmitry Oreshkin, said, "We are slowly returning to the Cold War situation as it stood at the end of the Soviet Union, with rather similar consequences, but it could to be even worse, because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin belongs to a generation that has not known the war. "
Trump's decision could give rise to controversy with European allies and others who see value in the treaty, said Steven Pifer, former US ambbadador to Ukraine and currently principal investigator at the Brookings Institution, specialized in the control of nuclear weapons.
"Once the United States withdrew from the treaty, Russia will no longer have any reason to pretend to respect the limits," he wrote in a message posted on the US website. # 39; organization. "Moscow will be free to deploy the 9M729 cruise missile and, if it wishes, a mid-range ballistic missile, without any constraints."
US officials have already claimed that Russia violated the treaty by deliberately deploying a land-based cruise missile to pose a threat to NATO. Russia claimed that US missile defenses violated the pact.
In the past, the Obama administration tried to convince Moscow to abide by the INF treaty, but made little progress.
"If they become smart and if others become so and say that they should not develop these horrible nuclear weapons, I would be extremely happy about that, but as long as someone a violate the agreement, we will not be the only ones who adhere to it, "said Trump.
Source link
