The United States will suspend compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia today and formally withdraw in six months if Moscow does not end its alleged treaty violations, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday.
The US would reconsider its withdrawal if Russia, which denies violating the landmark 1987 arms control pact, came into compliance with the treaty, which bans both nations from stationing short - and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe.
“Russia has refused to take any steps to return (to) real and verifiable compliance,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “We will provide Russia and the other treaty parties with formal notice that the US is withdrawing from the INF treaty, effective in six months.
Some experts believe collapse of the INF treaty could undermine other arms control agreements and speed an erosion of the global system designed to block the spread of nuclear arms.
The US alleges a new Russian cruise missile violates the pact. The missile, the Novator 9M729, is known as the SSC-8 by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
The treaty required the parties to destroy ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 km.
Last week, the head of Russia’s military’s missile and artillery forces said the new missile’s maximum range fell short of the treaty’s lower limit.
Russia says the missile’s range puts it outside the treaty and has accused the US of inventing a false pretext to exit a treaty that it wants to leave anyway so it can develop new missiles. Russia also has rejected a US demand to destroy the new missile.
“America really wants to develop new weapons systems which are in breach of this treaty,” Konstantin Kosachyov, senior Russian lawmaker, wrote on social media, saying the alleged Russian violation of the treaty had been a convenient pretext.
European officials are especially worried that collapse of the treaty would again make Europe an arena for nuclear-armed, intermediate-range missile buildups by the US and Russia.
“Fully support”
A few hours before Pompeo’s announcement, the NATO Western security alliance issued a statement saying it would “fully support” the US withdrawal notice.
Speaking before Pompeo’s announcement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasised the importance of using the six months window to keep talking.
Formal US withdrawal could give the Pentagon new options to counter Chinese missile advances but experts warn the ensuing arms race could greatly escalate tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
The US will notify Russia today of its plan to pull out in six months, a senior US official told reporters, describing this as “one final chance” to comply with the agreement but saying Washington doubted Moscow would do so.
The official said the administration had begun to deliberate whether extend the “New Start” arms control treaty, which went into effect in 2011 and required both nations to cut their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, the lowest level in decades.
That treaty, which also limits deployed land- and submarine-based missiles and nuclear-capable bombers, expires in February 2021, can be extended by five years if both sides agree. Senator Bob Menendez, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Trump failing to grasp the importance of arms control treaties or of having a wider strategy to control the spread of nuclear weapons.
“Today’s withdrawal is yet another geo-strategic gift to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin,” he said in a statement.
