Anonymous ID: 10235f Oct. 24, 2018, 2:46 p.m. No.3590946   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>0975

Collapse Of U.S.-Russia Agreements: INF Treaty Is Dead, New START Treaty Is Next

 

US National Security Advisor John Bolton visited Moscow on October 22nd. The visit and discussions that followed happened 48 hours after US President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

 

Defense News cited experts who are concerned that the US could possibly also withdraw from the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which was signed in 2010 between the US and Russia. It limits the deployed forces of both nations to 1,550 nuclear warheads over 700 delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers.

 

National Public Radio’s David Welna also was skeptical about the future of the new START treaty, following the INF withdrawal.

 

When he was asked about the treaty, while in Moscow, Bolton said that the US government is “currently considering” its position on the agreement. He, however, said that the Trump administration “does not have a position that we’re prepared to negotiate.”

 

This is further reinforced by Trump’s remarks in February 2017 when he called the agreement “a one-sided deal” and a “bad deal.” There was no follow-up to his words, in March 2017, Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein, then the service’s deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said the agreement was of “huge value” to the U.S., adding that it has “been good for us.”

 

TASS reported that Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Adviser John Bolton discussed rospects for extending the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the new START Treaty) for five more years after 2021.

 

“During the meeting, both sides exchanged opinions regarding the issue of extending the term of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms for five more years after 2021,” the press service of the Russian Security Council announced. “They have discussed in detail the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [NPT], the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty [CTBT], the Treaty on Open Skies, as well as the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC] and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention [BTWC],” the statement added.

 

Defense News also cited Frank Miller, who served as senior director for defense policy and arms control for President George W. Bush’s National Security Council. He said that the treaty provides 18 on-site inspections of Russian weapons a year, which “valuable” information for America’s military.

 

https://southfront.org/collapse-of-u-s-russia-agreements-inf-treaty-is-dead-new-start-treaty-is-next/