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President Trump announced on Saturday that he would withdraw the United States from the Mid-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, saying Russia "violates the agreement" and raised the possibility of developing a new nuclear weapons package. ; weapons.
"They have been violating it for many years," said Trump at the end of a campaign rally in Nevada. "And we will not let them break a nuclear deal, go out and make weapons without permission."
Russia has denied violating the 1987 INF Treaty, drafted by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, which prohibits the use of short and medium range rockets, as well as the testing, production or commissioning of new missiles. ground based.
Russia is developing a missile system known as 9M729, although Moscow declares itself fully in line with the pact.
The United States has been researching a missile to counter the threat posed by Russia and China, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier.
"Our effort is to bring Russia back to compliance," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at the end of last year. "This is not for moving away from the treaty."
Earlier this month, US Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Kay Bailey Hutchison, caused a sensation by declaring that Washington could choose to "suppress" the new Russian missiles. "They are warned," she said.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump said, "We are the ones who stayed in the agreement and we respected that agreement. But Russia unfortunately did not respect the agreement. So, we will end the agreement and we will withdraw. "
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Trump's statements come as National Security Adviser John Bolton travels to Russia next week for meetings.
In Moscow, Bolton will meet with his counterpart for national security as well as the Russian defense and foreign affairs ministers, according to a senior official in the administration.
Mr Bolton will travel to Azerbaijan to discuss regional issues, including Iran, before continuing in Armenia and Georgia.
Mr Bolton, during his stay in Moscow, plans to discuss North Korea, Ukraine and Syria, among other issues, said the official.
He will stress the importance of maintaining sanctions against North Korea in order to maintain pressure on the regime for it to renounce nuclear weapons, the official said. "The Russians and the Chinese have suggested that it might be time to relax the sanctions. This is not our point of view and we will not back down, "he added.
Write to Alex Leary at [email protected] and Peter Nicholas at [email protected]
