Despite withdrawing from other nuclear pacts, the president has bristled at the cost of a new arms race and says he wants to reach new deals.
By Paul Sonne and Paul Sonne National security reporter focusing on the U.S. military Email Bio Follow John Hudson John Hudson National security reporter focusing on the State Department and diplomacy. Email Bio Follow April 25 at 6:10 PM President Trump has ordered his administration to prepare a push for new arms-control agreements with Russia and China after bristling at the cost of a 21st-century nuclear arms race, according to administration officials.
A trilateral nuclear arms-control agreement among the United States, Russia and China would be a watershed diplomatic achievement; separate treaties alone would be significant. But normally such pacts require years of negotiation and diplomatic outreach, a challenge for an administration that has withdrawn from arms-control treaties but has not brokered any new ones.
Negotiated by President Barack Obama, the treaty places limits on strategic nuclear platforms such as bombers, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles. It can be extended for five years if the presidents of both nations agree. The White House is now looking to lay the groundwork for such talks, prompting skepticism among some arms-control advocates who watched with dismay as the president withdrew from a hard-won nuclear accord with Iran and the three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. The Trump administration cited shortcomings in the Iran agreement and Russia’s violations of the INF Treaty as rationales for pulling out of both pacts.
Bolton led the charge to withdraw the United States from the INF Treaty — a pact signed by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 that led to both countries eliminating their ground-launch midrange missiles. Because of the U.S. withdrawal, the treaty will end formally in August. Bolton also took the lead in dismantling the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia during the George W. Bush administration.
Some disarmament advocates worry that Trump’s more hawkish advisers are floating a broader arms-control discussion with Russia as a way to kill the New START accord. Those advocates express concern that the initiative will set an impossibly high standard for a new agreement, essentially creating a pretext for Trump to walk away from New START when Moscow does not agree to expanded limits.
“You can’t have it both ways,” the official said. “You can’t say you are concerned about the nuclear arms race and then criticize the president for trying to stop the arms racing that is being done by Russia and China.”
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