Washington: The US scrapping of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia could launch a new arms race, but will also allow the United States to update its nuclear arsenal, a publicly stated goal for the past year. President Trump announced on Friday the US was suspending its obligations under the INF treaty as of Saturday and starting a process to withdraw in six months. NATO has said US allies “fully support” its withdrawal from the pact, and agreed Russia’s 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile systems violates the treaty.
A day later, Russian President Putin announced a tit-for-tat withdrawal from the pact to develop “new types of weapons,” calling Washington’s decision “unilateral and totally unprovoked.” The US has complained about the alleged Russian violations for years. But now it’s speaking about its chance to upgrade arms stock. When the US unveiled its new nuclear policy in February 2018, it warned it planned to buy two new weapons: a new type of low-power nuclear missile to be launched from a submarine, and a new type of nuclear cruise missile that would violate the INF agreement.
This new missile — which would only come into service within a decade — would only be a violation of the treaty if it were deployed, the Pentagon says. It has always stressed that a research and development program was not prohibited by the 1987 treaty with Moscow. So starting Saturday “we are no longer bound by the constraints of the Treaty,” Johnny Michael, a Pentagon spokesman, told AFP Friday.