arlier this month, half a year after Washington launched its withdrawal from the NUC (INF) treaty signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987, this key treaty for establishing the regional and global security architecture was terminated.
In fact, to be exact, the US began to undermine the INF treaty years ago and has finally destroyed it.
This is not the first time Washington has acted this way. One can see a vivid trend that the US is undertaking consecutive steps to get rid of or erode the international arms control agreements that do not correspond to its interests in some way.
The collapse of the INF treaty is very much similar to the US’ withdrawal from the ABM treaty in 2002. It is also worth noting the US’ rejection to work out a legally binding verification protocol for the convention on the prohibition of biological weapons or reluctance to fully destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles in accordance with obligations taken under the convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons.
This list of claims is not full and can be expanded.
Needless to say that by denouncing the INF treaty, Washington is dismantling the existing nuclear missile control system in general. Moreover, this dangerous trend is accompanied by US officials’ statements on their readiness to build up nuclear armaments. Such behavior is fraught with destructive consequences for the entire architecture of global security and strategic stability.
The uncertainty about the future of the last Russian-US restricting and verifying mechanism in the nuclear arms sphere, the New START that expires in February 2021, also fits this trend.
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