A landmark arms control treaty that then-US president Ronald Reagan and then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed three decades ago is dead, prompting fears of a new global arms race.
The Washington and Moscow yesterday walked away from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
If they choose not to extend or replace the larger New START treaty when it expires in early 2021, there would be no legally binding limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals for the first time in nearly a half-century.
The US has blamed Russia for the demise of the treaty, saying that for years Moscow has been developing and fielding weapons that contravene the treaty and threaten the US and its allies, particularly in Europe.
However, without the constraints of the treaty, the administration of US President Donald Trump has said that it can now counter Russia — and China.
The US has complained for years of an unfair playing field — that Russia was developing weapons that breached the treaty and that China, which was not a signatory, was developing similar weapons that would have contravened it as well.
Trump has not committed to extending or replacing New START, which imposed limits starting last year on the number of US and Russian long-range nuclear warheads and launchers.
Trump has called New START “just another bad deal” made by the administration of former US president Barack Obama, and US National Security Adviser John Bolton in June said that it was unlikely that the administration would agree to extend the treaty for five years, which could be done without legislative action in either capital.
The Trump administration thinks talks about extending New START are premature.
It has claimed that with China’s growing arsenal of nuclear warheads, Beijing can no longer be excluded from nuclear arms control agreements.
Trump has expressed a desire to negotiate a trilateral arms control deal signed by the US, Russia and China.
Arms control advocates remain worried about the future.
Laura Kennedy, who formerly represented the US at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland, warned Americans not to let their eyes glaze over when confronted with the complex diplomacy of arms control.
They should raise the issue now with the US Congress and all candidates running for the White House next year, she said.
“This isn’t ‘wonkiness.’ It’s our future and the future of the planet,” Kennedy said. “Nuclear issues are so consequential that we simply cannot abandon a serious arms control effort. Nor can the US afford to cite its concerns over INF or other issues as an excuse to let the New START treaty lapse.”
Over its lifetime, the 1987 treaty led to the elimination of 2,692 US and Soviet nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles. Until its demise, the treaty banned land-based missiles with a range of between 500km and 5,500km.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese