US to begin nuclear treaty pullout next month after Russia missile talks fail
Source: The Guardian
The US has rejected Moscows offer to inspect a new Russian missile suspected of violating a key cold-war era nuclear-weapons treaty, and warned that it would suspend observance of the agreement on 2 February, giving six-month notice of a complete withdrawal.
The under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, Andrea Thompson, confirmed the US intention to withdraw from the treaty after a meeting with a Russian delegation in Geneva, which both sides described as a failure.
Donald Trump took US allies by surprise when he announced his intention to leave the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in October. The agreement led to the destruction of thousands of US and Soviet weapons, and has kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for three decades.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused the US of intransigence, saying Moscow had offered to allow US experts inspect the suspect missile, which it insists does not infringe the limits laid down in the treaty.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/16/us-russia-inf-treaty-nuclear-missile?CMP=share_btn_tw
SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)Lavrov is just playing his part in the charade.
cstanleytech
(26,299 posts)Not to say the US pulling out of this one is a good thing because its not but both sides need to abide by their agreements or things like this will happen.
SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)That's like saying because people are speeding, let's get rid of all motor vehicle laws.
How about enforcing the agreement by requiring them to correct the violation, instead of destroying the agreement?
cstanleytech
(26,299 posts)abide by the agreements they made over nuclear weapons.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Can it really fail if that was the intention in the first place?
Bayard
(22,103 posts)Putin certainly is.