The Trump administration will announce to Russia that the US will withdraw from a major arms control treaty

National Security Adviser John Bolton prepares to inform Russian President Vladimir Putin next week that the United States will no longer be part of a key arms control treaty, reported Friday the New York Times.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed several decades ago at a historic meeting in 1986 between former President Reagan and the leader of the Soviet Union of the At the time, Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the United States to oppose Chinese efforts to amass arms in the Pacific. US to deploy new weapons in response, the Times noted.

China, however, is not a signatory to the treaty and has no limit to developing intermediate-range nuclear missiles. As a signatory, the Times reported, Russia has been violating the pact since at least 2014.

Former President Obama has chosen to remain in the pact after the objections of Germany and other European countries and avoid another arms race, the newspaper said.

The White House told the newspaper that no official decision had yet been taken, but sources told the Times that President TrumpDonald John TrumpCorker: The United States Should Determine The Responsibility Of The Death Of A Saudi Journalist Five Conclusions To Be Withheld From The Heller-Rosen Hollywood Debate In Nevada A Senator Calls For US Action After An Explanation "absurd" in Arabia should sign the treaty soon. According to the Times, this decision would mark Trump's first turnaround on an arms control treaty.

Trump has withdrawn from the Iranian nuclear deal in May but, the Times notes, this deal was not a treaty and only prevented Iran from producing nuclear weapons.

The last president to withdraw from an important arms treaty was former President George W. Bush, in 2002, when he had withdrawn from the anti-nuclear missile treaty. ballistic.

The news comes as Bolton travels to Moscow for high-level talks with Russian officials. He told The Times that he would inform Putin of the US decision to leave the INF. Bolton declined to comment on his next trip to the newspaper.

The 1987 pact prohibits all ground-based missiles with a range of 310 to 3 420 miles and includes missiles carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads. The initial ban between Moscow and Washington resulted in the destruction of 2,692 missiles.

US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison warned earlier this month that the United States may be forced to "withdraw" missiles developed by Russia and violating INF.

"It is time for Russia to come to the table and put an end to the violations," Hutchison told reporters.