US withdraws from INF Treaty

President Trump has announced US withdrawal from the 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (‘the INF Treaty’).

The INF Treaty, forged between the US and Russia towards the end of the Cold War, eliminated all ground-launched missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometres, including both cruise and ballistic missiles. Both the US and Russia have accused each other of non-compliance with the treaty.

President Trump told reporters that Russia had ‘not adhered to the spirit of that agreement or to the agreement itself’ and that ‘until people come to their senses, we will build it up,’ indicating that the US would stockpile nuclear weapons.

The US first accused Russia of testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile (‘GLCM’) in 2014, notifying its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (‘NATO’) allies in 2015. It received guarded support from NATO and European leaders for its position. Russia has argued that the US itself violated the treaty by deploying missiles and launchers which, when combined, constitute prohibited weapons.

The EU has expressed its opposition to the US withdrawal from the INF, warning President Trump that he risks a new nuclear arms race.

‘The INF contributed to the end of the cold war and constitutes a pillar of European security architecture since it entered into force 30 years ago,’ said a spokesperson for the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in a statement.

‘Thanks to the INF treaty, almost 3,000 missiles with nuclear and conventional warheads have been removed and verifiably destroyed,’ the statement read. ‘The world doesn’t need a new arms race that would benefit no one, and on the contrary would bring even more instability.’

The time scale for US withdrawal is six months.