Trump: US ready to bolster nuclear arsenal
US President says Russia had not stuck to agreement
WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US is ready to build up its nuclear arsenal after announcing it is abandoning a Cold War-era nuclear treaty, as Russia warned the withdrawal could cripple global security.
Mr Trump sparked concern globally over the weekend by saying he wanted to jettison the three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by former US president Ronald Reagan and Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet Union leader.
In explaining his decision, Mr Trump told reporters in Washington that Russia had "not adhered to the spirit of that agreement or to the agreement itself."
"Until people come to their senses, we will build it up," he said, referring to America's nuclear stockpile. "This should have been done years ago."
"It is a threat to whoever you want. And it includes China. And it includes Russia," the US President continued.
"And it includes anybody else who wants to play that game. You can't do that. You can't play that game.
"Until they get smart, there is going to be nobody that is going to be even close to us."
Russia, however, has warned that abandoning the agreement would be a major blow to global security.
Moscow was ready to work with the US to salvage the agreement, the Russian Security Council said after a meeting between its chief Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Mr Bolton, who was expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, was visiting Moscow in the wake of Mr Trump's announcement on Saturday that he wants to do away with the pact that bans intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles.
Signed in 1987, the INF resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals.
On Monday, Mr Bolton discussed the fate of the treaty with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and spent "nearly five hours" in talks with Mr Patrushev, a spokesman for the council said.
Speaking after his meeting with Mr Patrushev, Mr Bolton said the Russians had insisted that Moscow did not violate the treaty.
"The position was very firmly announced by Russia that they did not believe they were breaching the INF treaty.
"In fact they said: 'You are breaching the INF Treaty,'" Mr Bolton said in an interview with Kommersant, a Russian broadsheet.
"You can't bring somebody into compliance who does not think they are in breach," he said, adding that the treaty seems to have run its course.
Until people come to their senses, we will build it up. This should have been done years ago. It is a threat to whoever you want.President Donald Trump on the US' nuclear stockpile
The two men also discussed a possible extension by five years of the New Start arms control treaty, which expires in 2021, the council said.
Mr Bolton told Kommersant that Washington wanted to "resolve the INF issue first."
The Russian Foreign Ministry released a picture of Mr Lavrov talking to a grinning Mr Bolton and said the two men discussed bilateral cooperation, the fight against terror, and "maintaining strategic stability."
Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims that Moscow has violated the pact, instead accusing Washington of doing so, and called Mr Bolton's upcoming meeting with Mr Putin important.
"There are more questions than answers," he told journalists.- AFP
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