Why a Landmark Cold War Arms Treaty Is Under Threat

U.S. President Donald Trump said he intends to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia because of alleged violations by Moscow. The Kremlin says it’s obeying the landmark pact and denounced Trump’s plans as many analysts warned the Cold War-era arms control system is now under threat.

The treaty, signed in December 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, was a high point for U.S.-Soviet arms control. It was preceded by a spiraling arms race: In response to Soviet deployments of SS-20 intermediate-range nuclear missiles that could strike Western Europe in the late 1970s, the U.S. put missiles of its own in West Germany, Italy and the U.K. After years of unproductive talks between the two sides on limiting the weapons, Reagan and Gorbachev reached agreement to eliminate them entirely. The INF treaty, which has no expiration date, called for both sides to destroy and never deploy again ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers (300-3,500 miles), either nuclear or conventional. The pact allows similar weapons fired from ships or aircraft. A total of 2,692 missiles were destroyed by 1991 under the treaty, according to the U.S. State Department.