Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrey Kortunov on the Future of Nuclear Arms Control
Andrey Kortunov:
The Domino Effect: America’s Withdrawal from the INF Treaty and Its Ramifications
Few of us remember how negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme began. In October 2003, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Dominique de Villepin and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany Joschka Fischer ...
... capable of hitting closer targets.
So, what will happen if the INF Treaty is destroyed? Much is made of the possibility that Russia may be the first party to deploy intermediate-range missiles there. Yet a few points should be made in this regard.
A European Response to US Withdrawal from the INF Treaty. ELN statement
Russian land-based missiles are one of the country’s major areas of military-scientific and industrial excellence, so Russian sub-strategic missiles getting the ‘pole position’ in a future Russian defence strategy is indeed a viable scenario. However,...
In Paris, 100 years after the guns across Europe fell silent, leaders can begin taking important steps to ensure a new and devastating war will not happen today
This ... ... prevent an incident turning into unimaginable catastrophe?
For those gripped with complacency, consider this scenario. It is 2019. Russia is conducting a large military exercise in its territory bordering NATO. A NATO observer aircraft accidentally approaches ...
... the US not to take unilateral action that would jeopardise the future of the INF without further efforts, such a move would likely trigger an arms race and damage the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
The full statement is reproduced below.
A European response to US withdrawal from the INF Treaty
ELN
statement November 2018
President Trump’s declared intention to withdraw the United States from the 1987 US-Russia Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) calls into question not only the fate of this pivotal accord but also the future of nuclear arms control, with potentially grave consequences for European security.
The INF treaty may indeed have been violated....
... the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, remarked in February 2007 that Russia could begin reviewing the entire treaty framework of nuclear deterrence in response to the United States deploying components of its missile defence system in Eastern Europe. In particular, he
said
that Russia could unilaterally withdraw from the INF Treaty: “The treaty is indefinite, but either party may pull out of it if it provides convincing evidence of the need to do so. Such evidence currently exists: many countries are developing and perfecting medium-range missiles, while Russia has ...
