President Trump confirmed the U.S. will pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a nuclear deal signed between Washington and Moscow during the Cold War.
“We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump told reporters before a campaign rally in Nevada Saturday.
“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” he added.
The INF, which was signed between former President Reagan and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, allows the U.S. to counter Chinese efforts to accumulate arms in the Pacific but prevents Washington from deploying new weapons in response.
The New York Times reported Friday that the Pentagon has been developing nuclear weapons to counter Chinese weapons already deployed.
China is not a signatory to the deal, and the Trump administration has accused Russia of violating the deal.
Russia’s “decision to violate the INF Treaty and other commitments all clearly indicate that Russia has rebuffed repeated U.S. efforts to reduce the salience, role, and number of nuclear weapons,” the administration wrote in a nuclear strategy document earlier this year.
The pact bans all land-based missiles with ranges of 310 to 3,420 miles and includes missiles carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads. The original ban between Moscow and Washington resulted in 2,692 missiles being destroyed.
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Trump confirms the US will withdraw from landmark arms control treaty with Russia https://t.co/uS8UXevOb6 pic.twitter.com/46EntJSYVr
— The Hill (@thehill) October 20, 2018
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