Republican senators were divided on Sunday about President Trump’s decision to pull out of a 1987 arms control deal with Russia that he claims Moscow…
Republican senators were divided on Sunday about President Trump’s decision to pull out of a 1987 arms control deal with Russia that he claims Moscow has been violating for years.
“It’s a big, big mistake to flippantly get out of this historic agreement,” Sen. Rand Paul told “Fox News Sunday,” adding that the number of nuclear tipped missiles plummeted to 15,000 from 64,000 because of the treaty.
Noting that Washington and Moscow have at times accused the other of not being in compliance, Paul said he urged Trump to appoint nuclear arms negotiators to work with Russia.
“Let’s have a rational discussion with experts on this and see if we can resolve it,” he said.
But Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said there’s no question that Russia has been violating the treaty.
He said Trump’s move may just be a ploy to make Russia come under compliance and drew parallels to how the president handled negotiations with Mexico and Canada over NAFTA.
“This could be somewhat like the fact that they were going to end NAFTA, and then ended up negotiating some small changes,” Corker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham stood solidly in Trump’s corner, saying it’s “absolutely the right move.”
“The Russians have been cheating; the Chinese are building up their missiles,” Graham (R-SC) said on “Fox News Sunday. “And we need to counter it.”
Trump announced on Saturday that he plans to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev – a pact that helps protect the security of the U. S. and its allies in Europe and the Far East.
The president said the accord prevents the US from developing new weapons and he warned the US will begin to do so again unless Russia and China, which is not part of the treaty, agree not to develop the arms.
“We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable,” Trump said.
He also sent national security adviser John Bolton to Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
After word emerged of Bolton’s trip, Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blasted Trump for playing into the hands of President Vladimir Putin and putting NATO allies at risk.
“President Reagan negotiated the INF Treaty because he knew ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.’ If President Trump withdraws from INF first so Russia can justify its noncompliance, he is betraying NATO and Europe to do Putin’s bidding,” Markey wrote on Twitter on Friday .
Putin hasn’t responded, but Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Trump’s decision would be condemned by world leaders.
“This would be a very dangerous step, which, I’m sure, won’t be just understood by the international community, but arouse serious condemnation of all members of the world community, who are committed to security and stability and are ready to work on strengthening the current regimes in arms control,” said Ryabkov, according to state-run news agency Tass.
