US President Donald Trump wants to be "a boss man worldwide" and objects to anything that does not agree with his idea of "American total global power," Bruce Kent, an honorary Vice President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), told Sputnik regarding US potential exit from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th February, 2019) US President Donald Trump wants to be "a boss man worldwide" and objects to anything that does not agree with his idea of "American total global power," Bruce Kent, an honorary Vice President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), told Sputnik regarding US potential exit from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump said that the United States would outspend and out-innovate all other countries if a new treaty is not reached to replace the INF Treaty. Trump made his speech several days after US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Washington had suspended its obligations under the INF Treaty and would leave in six months unless Russia came back into compliance with the pact.
"From what I read, he [Trump] lives in a world of American total global power. That's where he lives, so anything that bumps into that goes down badly with him. And so I'm not sure that he's thought our what capabilities this missile has, but he wants to be the boss man world-wide," Kent said.
The campaigner criticized the UK government's support of the US stance on this issue.
"I think it's particularly ridiculous that the British government, without any debate, has signed up for his [Trump's] position on this treaty," Kent said.
The CND vice president added that it was "very alarming when you have a treaty that's been agreed, multilaterally, that's torn up by one party."
A better solution would be to turn to the International Court of Justice or to the United Nations to resolve the issue, Kent suggested. The campaigner added that there were still ways out despite the danger of the situation.
"The public are aware of what's going on. We ought to be negotiating but we're not at all," Kent said.
Pompeo announced US suspension of the treaty and the launch of the six-month withdrawal process on Friday. On the following day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had suspended its participation in the treaty in response to the US actions.
The United States is alleging that the range of Russia's 9M729 missile violated the treaty limits, but Moscow has denied the allegations, stressing that they were unsubstantiated. Russia, in turn, has complained that US defense systems in Europe were equipped with launchers capable of firing cruise missiles at ranges prohibited under the INF treaty.
The CND was set up in 1957 in the United Kingdom, as Cold War tensions were running high.
