US President Donald Trump must negotiate a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia that ensures stability after his decision to suspend US participation in the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Senator Bob Menendez said in a news release on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2019) US President Donald Trump must negotiate a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia that ensures stability after his decision to suspend US participation in the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Senator Bob Menendez said in a news release on Friday."The relationship with the Russian Federation remains a challenge, but we must address these arms control issues and negotiate a durable agreement that ensures stability in our nuclear forces," Menendez said in the release.
Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the United States will suspend its obligations under the INF Treaty on February 2 and will begin the six-month withdrawal process unless Russia comes back into compliance in that period.
Menendez, a Democrat from New York, claimed that the Russia "brazenly violated" the INF Treaty and has been unwilling to take the steps necessary to come back into compliance.
"Through its actions, the Kremlin bears responsibility for the degradation of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty," Menendez said.
The senator added that the United States' withdrawal from the accord is another gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The INF Treaty was signed on December 8, 1987, in Washington, DC by then US President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. The treaty entered into force on June 1, 1988.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and the former Soviet republics of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were carrying out the obligations under the INF Treaty.
