News / Foreign Policy

US is not walking away from arms control, Mattis says in Bahrain visit

Sunday, 28 October 2018 1:54 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 October 2018 6:25 AM ]

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks during the second day of the 14th Manama Security Summit in Bahrain, October 27, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has claimed that the country does not intend to quit arms control agreements, in a statement further elaborating earlier comments made by President Donald Trump about leaving a critical nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

“Eventually we have to look reality in the eye, that is not to mean that we are walking away from arms control. But arms control must be more than words on a paper, it must be actions,” said Mattis on Saturday while attending a regional security summit in Bahrain. “We are in close collaboration with our European allies... and we will continue to collaborate very closely with the treaty and its implications for European security.”

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which was signed towards the end of Cold War in 1987 by then President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, was seen as a milestone in ending the Cold War arms race between the two superpowers after effectively banning short and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe.

PressTV-US ditching INF to ruin nuclear non-proliferation system

Gorbachev says quitting the INF nuclear weapons agreement between Russia and the US is a "mistake."

The deal subsequently led to the elimination of nearly 2,700 short and medium-range missiles.

US President Donald Trump, however, announced on October 20 that Washington would withdraw from the treaty on the basis of alleged Russian violation of the deal.

Russia, on the other hand, believes the US has violated the treaty, arguing that missile defense systems stationed in Romania, also planned for deployment in Poland this year, could launch Tomahawk medium-range missiles apart from interceptor missiles.

Experts have warned that leaving the agreement could provoke a dangerous arms race akin to the one that unfolded during the height of the Cold War, increasing the risk of a nuclear conflict.

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