WASHINGTON – National Security Adviser John Bolton said Tuesday there was no chance the Trump administration would reverse its decision to withdraw from a landmark…
WASHINGTON – National Security Adviser John Bolton said Tuesday there was no chance the Trump administration would reverse its decision to withdraw from a landmark nuclear weapons accord – despite hearing directly from President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s concerns with the move.
After a 90-minute meeting with Putin, Bolton renewed U. S. accusations that Russia is violating the treaty and suggested it would be a waste of time to try to persuade the Kremlin to comply. Bolton suggested the treaty was outmoded anyway.
“There’s a new strategic reality out there,” Bolton said. “This is a cold war bilateral ballistic-missile-related treaty – in a multipolar ballistic-missile world.”
In an interview with a Moscow reporter, Bolton was asked what Russia would have to do to get the U. S. to reconsider. He said only if China and Russia gave up all their intermediate-range missiles would President Donald Trump think twice about his decision.
“If Russia were to dismantle all of its equipment in violation of the treaty and China did the same, that would be a different circumstance,” Bolton told Kommersat. “I think there’s zero chance of that happening.”
Russia has denied allegations that it is violating the treaty, which the Obama administration also leveled.
On Tuesday, Putin expressed dismay at the U. S. announcement. Referring to the Great Seal of the United States – which features a bald eagle with 13 arrows in one talon and 13 olives in the other – Putin joked that the U. S. seemed to only have arrows left.
“I have a question: Has your eagle picked all the olives and only has arrows left?” Putin asked Bolton during their meeting in Moscow, according to the Associated Press and other media accounts.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was more serious in discussing the matter, saying the U. S. position was “risky” and lamenting the lack of any effort to craft a new treaty.
“Ruining the treaty in a situation where even hints at concluding a new one do not exist is something that we do not welcome,” Peskov said, according to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency.
“For now, there are no prospects for the emergence of a new document,” he said. “Quitting the agreement first and then discussing the hypothetical, ephemeral possibility of concluding a new treaty is a pretty risky stance.”
At issue is the INF Treaty, signed in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. It required the U. S. and Russia to destroy ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between approximately 310 and 3,400 miles, along with supporting equipment.
Bolton rejected suggestions the U. S. withdraw could spark a new nuclear arms race. And he sidestepped questions about whether the Trump administration would move to deploy missiles in Europe or elsewhere.
“I think we’re a long way from any decisions on those kinds of questions,” Bolton said. He noted the INF Treaty was only binding for the U. S. and Russia; and since Russia was violating the pact, Bolton said, “exactly one country was constrained by the INF Treaty: the United States.”
In the meantime, Bolton said, China, North Korea and Iran “are free to do whatever they want” and have made “very substantial strides” in developing intermediate range and missiles. But he downplayed the possibility that the treaty could be expanded to cover other countries, instead of jettisoned altogether.
European leaders have not disputed U. S. allegations of Russian cheating. But they’ve expressed concerns that Trump’s plan to nix the treaty will lead to a new nuclear arms race.
The INF treaty “contributed to the end of the cold-war and constitutes a pillar of European security architecture since it entered into force 30 years ago,” the EU said in a statement Monday. It noted that the treaty led to the elimination of nearly 3,000 missiles with nuclear and conventional warheads have been removed and verifiably destroyed and urged the U. S. and Russia to resolve its differences over the accord.
“The world doesn’t need a new arms race that would benefit no one and on the contrary would bring even more instability,” the EU statement says.
Trump may have fanned those fears on Monday, when he vowed to build up America’s nuclear arsenal in response to what he portrayed as a growing threat from Russia and China.
“Until people come to their senses, we will build it up,” Trump said in reference to U. S. nuclear weapons capacity. “We have more money than anybody else by far.”
More: Trump: U. S. will build up nuclear arsenal after nixing landmark weapons treaty with Russia
