Defense News: With days to go before deadline, nuclear treaty seems doomed
WASHINGTON — A top American official today does not expect Russia will meet the demands of the Trump administration before a Feb. 2 deadline, when America will begin withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.
Asked if she was optimistic Russia would meet the U.S. deadline, Andrea Thompson, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, was blunt: “I’m not.”
The INF Treaty, signed between the U.S. and Russia in 1987, bans all land-based cruise missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. While the Obama administration had accused Moscow of violating the agreement by deploying such systems, most notably with the Novator 9M729 design, Pentagon officials, including former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, have been more vocal under the Trump administration about their concerns.
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Update #1: State Dept: US likely to pull out of Cold War-era arms treaty as deadline looms (The Hill)
Update #2: US Ready to Pull Out of Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia Next Week (Military.com)
WNU Editor: There will be one last attempt next week to save the treaty .... U.S. has offered to hold arms control talks with Russia: official (Reuters).
2 comments:
So the former Obama arms controller Wolfsthal says Trump has won so far against the Russians and risks losing his big gains by withdrawal. What are those big gains? As far as I can tel it is the Russians talking seriously and they letting Americans see a mock-up. Now that’s crazy when the Russians are still deploying these missiles in large numbers.
Go back and read the history from the late 1970’s thru mid 1980’s on why Russia’s missiles matter. Back then the Germans had doubts the USA would risk New York for Berlin so they wanted a nuclear INF type missile to hold Moscow at risk from German soil. The Germany govt wanted them and approved deploying the Pershing missiles. Russia then got serious and agreed to the INF.
Has the danger of the USA backing away from coming to Germany’s aid increased or decreased since then? With Germany ruling out deploying a counter to Russia, does that encourage the US to backstop Germany?
Another big problem with Russia's move is these missiles are war winners with mere minutes to seconds of flight time and little or no advance notice of their preparation for launch. We've seen these missiles flight tested in Syria from gun boats hitting targets 900 km distant. With enough of these Russia can seal off, using conventional warheads, Western Europe from the French coasts all the way to Poland from any reinforcements from the USA. The nukes can be reserved for afterwards when there is no hope of a US rescue.
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