With the scrapping of a landmark arms control agreement on Friday, the US announced plans to test a new missile amid growing concerns about emerging threats and new weapons.
US officials said they are no longer hamstrung and could now develop weapons systems previously banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, a Cold War-era agreement that both sides repeatedly accused the other of violating.
The treaty was also criticized because it did not cover China or missile technology that did not exist a generation ago.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The end of the treaty came amid rising doubts about whether the two countries would extend an agreement on long-range nuclear weapons scheduled to expire in 2021.
US President Donald Trump said he has been discussing a new agreement to reduce nuclear weapons with China and Russia.
“And I will tell you China was very, very excited about talking about it and so was Russia,” Trump told reporters. “So I think we’ll have a deal at some point.”
The Trump administration, which gave its six-month notice on Feb. 2 of its pending withdrawal from the INF, had repeatedly said Russia was violating its provisions, an accusation former US president Barack Obama made as well.
“The United States will not remain party to a treaty that is deliberately violated by Russia,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in announcing the formal withdrawal, calling a Russian missile system prohibited under the agreement a “direct threat to the United States and our allies.”
The end of the INF, which came as world powers seek to contain the nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea, is another milestone in the deterioration of relations between the US and Russia.
“The denunciation of the INF treaty confirms that the US has embarked on destroying all international agreements that do not suit them for one reason or another,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“This leads to the actual dismantling of the existing arms control system,” it said.
A senior US administration official downplayed the upcoming US weapons test, saying it was not meant to be a provocation.
The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the test flight, said the US is “years away” from effectively deploying weapons previously banned under the agreement.
However, it might eventually want to base such weapons in Europe as a counterbalance to Russia, or in Asia to counter China.
The central issue with the INF was that both Russia and the US had long accused the other of cheating on the treaty, which banned land-based missiles of ranges between 500km and 5,500km.
The US said the noncompliant missile systems the Russians fielded gave Moscow an advantage over NATO forces in Europe.
The Obama administration in 2014 first publicly accused Moscow of violating the INF by testing a treaty-busting cruise missile, and the Trump administration pressed the accusation.
Russia denied it has cheated and countered with a contention that the US’ armed drones and missile defense system in Europe are violations.
US military officials have said 95 percent of China’s ballistic and cruise missiles would have violated the treaty.
“Since the strategic environment has changed rapidly since the end of the Cold War, we need to find ways to use arms control to address the rise of China’s nuclear arsenal, the increase of Russia’s non-strategic weapons stockpiles, and the emergence of new technologies like hypersonic weapons,” said US Representative Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
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