U.S. Issues Nuclear Ultimatum to Russia | Get Full Details Here
U.S. Issues Nuclear Ultimatum to Russia… The United State, Us has issued 60-Day Ultimatum for Russia to Comply With Nuclear Treaty. See more details below;
U.S. Issues Nuclear Ultimatum to Russia
It was announce on Tuesday by the SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE Pompeo that Russia has 60 days to become compliant with a key international agreement governing the development of nuclear weapons or the U.S. would also cease obeying it, offering an ultimatum that restores some of the Trump administration’s diplomatic leverage over Moscow but also risks the beginning of a new nuclear arms race.
Pompeo issued the threat in Brussels shortly after NATO foreign ministers released a statementconfirming Russia’s violations of the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, specifically its development of a ground-launched cruise missile Moscow calls the 9M729.
“The United States is declaring that Russia’s ongoing violation of the INF Treaty constitutes a material breach of the treaty. As a consequence of Russia’s material breach, the United States will suspend its obligations under the treaty effective in 60 days from Dec. 4 unless Russia returns to full and verifiable compliance,” according to a State Department statement. “Russia must return to full and verifiable compliance; Russia’s failure to do so will result in the demise of the INF Treaty. We should be clear that Russia has not shown any indications that it seeks to return to compliance.”
Russia has repeatedly rejected that it has disobeyed the terms of the treaty, first by denying the existence of such missiles and later saying its range was compliant with the agreement. It has also criticized the U.S. for what it considers provocative behavior in Europe.
The NATO statement on Tuesday said the U.S. has remained in compliance and urged both sides to continue to honor the treaty.
“It is now up to Russia to preserve the INF Treaty,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote in a tweet.
President Donald Trump indicated in October he would withdraw from the 1987 agreement and begin rebuilding the U.S. nuclear arsenal following reports that Russia had developed new weapons in defiance of the treaty’s terms. Trump also expressed displeasure that China was not included in the agreement.
Critics of the announcement at the time feared Trump was handing a rhetorical victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who could claim with some legitimacy that the U.S. was first to officially part from the agreement.
Other world leaders, principally German Chancellor Angela Merkel, petitioned the president strongly to stay with the agreement, despite National Security Adviser John Bolton’s strong and long-standing opposition to it.
White House policies toward Moscow are under heightened scrutiny amid ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents.
Pompeo criticized Russia earlier on Tuesday in a speech to the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, citing its military campaigns in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine beginning in 2014, and its reported deployment of nerve gas to try to kill a Russian defector in England.
“Russia hasn’t embraced Western values of freedom and international cooperation,” Pompeo said.
While most officials and experts agreed that the U.S. needs to take a harder line against Russia, some expressed concern following Pompeo’s announcement at the risks the White House appears willing to take.
“The 60-day delay of the notification of the formal U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty provides little time and will be of little value unless NATO governments, along with Russia and the United States actually try to negotiate a solution” that addresses Russia’s non-compliance, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the disarmament advocacy group the Arms Control Association. “Failure to do so risks the start of a new missile race in Europe that will undermine European security and make the extension of the 2010 New START agreement between Washington and Moscow all the more vital.”
Kimball cited both Western concerns about Russia as well as Moscow’s furor over the U.S. deployment of a missile shield to Romania that could be used for offensive missile launches.
“It’s clear that Russia is guilty of recurrent and egregious violations of the INF Treaty,” Rep. Eliot Engel said in a statement. The New York Democrat is ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “However, our immediate task should be to work with our European allies to bring Russia back into compliance, not to unilaterally withdraw from the treaty. We must act responsibly and do everything we can to minimize the risk of rekindling an arms race.”
Officials from countries allied with the U.S. and closer to Russia have a different perspective. Speaking on the sidelines of a security conference in Halifax last month, Raimundas Karoblis, the minister of defense for Lithuania, a NATO ally, confirmed to U.S. News the presence of Russian nuclear-capable missiles in Kaliningrad, the detached Russian province that also borders the Baltic Sea.
“We very much understand the U.S. position,” Karoblis said of Trump’s consideration for withdrawing from the INF Treaty. “The only way to speak with Russia is also to demonstrate force.”
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NG Team.