PRESIDENT Donald Trump told reporters this week that the US will pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, saying that both Russia and China possess the missiles it bans.
While Russia is part of the treaty, China isn鈥檛. The latter鈥檚 small but growing nuclear armoury consists entirely of intermediate-range missiles, however, and Trump may be trying to force three-way talks.
The INF Treaty bans US or Russian ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges between 480 and 5500 kilometres. It is one of only two remaining treaties imposing verified limits on US and Russian nuclear forces, which together hold 92 per cent of all nukes. Experts fear that if this treaty goes, the New START treaty, which limits big, long-range nuclear weapons, could go too.
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Since 2008, the US has charged that a Russian prototype cruise missile violates the INF Treaty. Russia in turn charges that US armed drones do, as do missile-defence launchers installed in Romania, which could launch medium-range Tomahawk missiles offensively.
These issues could be resolved with inspections, but raised tensions could now make that difficult.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淯S to pull out of nuclear treaty?鈥�
