The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) could help ease the impact of the potential break-up of the Russian-US Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Jean-Marie Collin, spokesman for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) France, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2019) The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) could help ease the impact of the potential break-up of the Russian-US Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Jean-Marie Collin, spokesman for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) France, told Sputnik.
US State Secretary Mike Pompeo is expected to announce later on Friday that Washington suspends its participation in the treaty, the CNN broadcaster reported, citing two US officials and multiple diplomatic sources.
"If there are difficulties, there is another treaty being created, the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Arms, which could mitigate the existing tensions over INF fallout," Collin said.
The spokesman remarked that there seemed to be "a real political will" to actually withdraw from the INF treaty. He added that this rhetoric was not new, as the tensions around the deal already existed under the previous US administration.
However, the treaty is a global rather than bilateral issue, Collin said.
"The fact that these two states are accusing each other of non-observing the treaty is putting bigger tensions on Europe, [it] has to make the Europeans take charge of this issue and not leave it only in the hands of either [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or [US President Donald] Trump," the ICAN France spokesman said.
According to Collin, multilateral agreements are needed in the future.
"The future START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] agreement negotiations have to be prolonged after 2022. We need other actors to be incorporated into this agreement, for different issues � verification maybe, there are many things that could be implemented," the ICAN France spokesman said.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is a legally binding agreement that bans all nuclear weapons. It was adopted in July 2017 and is not in force yet. None of the 'Nuclear Five' � China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States � are signatories to this treaty.
The United States is intending to withdraw from the INF treaty, signed in 1987, because of Russia's alleged non-compliance. Russia has refuted US allegations and pointed to its own concerns regarding some of US defense systems in Europe.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday that no progress had been made in bilateral talks on the treaty and the United States was likely to suspend its obligations starting this weekend.
In 2017, ICAN won Nobel Peace prize for its work reminding people of dire consequences of the use of any nuclear weapons.
