U.S. security chief in Moscow as nuclear treaty hangs in balance
- by Cecilia Wilkerson
- in World News
- — Oct 24, 2018
Russian Federation said it would be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance with the United States if President Trump carried through on his threat. Beijing was not party to the INF treaty and has been fielding new and more deadly missile forces.
"For many years, China has mostly relied on land-based nuclear weapons as its strategic deterrent", Zhao wrote.
"I don't know whether they will succeed or not, but I think it's not too late yet", he said.
"We view Mr Bolton's visit as a sign the Trump administration, despite the overall situation with our relations, is ready to maintain dialogue". "Actually, we reduced the role of nuclear weapons to the historic minimum".
Trump has accused Russian Federation of violating the agreement. And it includes China, and it includes Russian Federation, and it includes anybody else who wants to play that game. You can't do that. "You can't play that game".
"The position was very firmly announced by Russian Federation that they did not believe that they were breaching the INF treaty".
Senator Jim Risch supported the move toward withdrawal from the INF treaty.
"What the meddling did create was distrust and animosity within the United States", Bolton said Tuesday, "and particularly made it nearly impossible for two years for the United States and Russian Federation to make progress diplomatically". Those systems would've been banned under the ABM treaty.
Welcome to the high church of arms control in which treaties are sacrosanct no matter the violation.
Yang Chengjun, a Chinese missile expert, told China's state-run Global Times that if the U.S. dropped out of the INF it would have a "negative" impact on China's national security.
Harris added that 95 percent of PLARF missiles would violate the INF if China was included in the treaty.
"Talking about China on the issue of unilaterally pulling out of the treaty is completely mistaken", spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, however, warned that withdrawing the USA from the INF treaty would be a strategic mistake that would weaken national security and the security of key allies.
Russian Federation has vehemently denied any state-sponsored meddling, but Putin has said some "patriotic" hackers could have been involved.
Washington has charged Moscow with developing and deploying a new intermediate range nuclear missile, which Russian Federation denies.
Trump said the United States has "more money than anybody else, by far" to build up its arsenal.
It resolved a crisis that had begun in the 1980s with the deployment of Soviet SS-20 nuclear-tipped, intermediate-range ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals.
"President Trump should be leading non-proliferation efforts around the world, not undermining existing treaties". Already, he notes, both the United States and Russian Federation are spending more than $1 trillion "on a new generation of nuclear arms systems".
About 95 per cent of the missiles available to the Chinese People's Liberation Army Rocket Force would violate the INF Treaty if Beijing were a signatory, Lee charges.
Writing in The American Interest, Stephen Sestanovich, a former U.S. National Security Council senior director for policy development under Reagan, said that "military competition between China and the United States will obviously be the Pentagon's top priority in coming years".
