It’s Wrong to Abandon the INF Treaty
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is failing, but walking away would backfire.
A big moment in 1987.
Photograph: Corbis Historical/Getty Images
The Trump administration is apparently about to tell Russia that it means to withdraw from the 1987 treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces. It has grounds, because Russia is cheating. And the treaty is a problem in another way: As it stands, it ties America’s hands in responding to China’s missile programs. But simply abandoning the agreement is not the smart way to proceed.
Concern over the INF, by which the U.S. and the Soviet Union pledged to eliminate ground-launched missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometers (roughly 300 to 3,400 miles), isn’t new. The Obama administration accused Russia of violating it in 2014 by testing a prohibited cruise missile; last year the Trump administration accused Russia of deploying the weapon.