The U.S. is in “close” contact with European allies about the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday, following threats earlier this month from U.S. President Donald Trump to quite the arms control accord.
According to a Reuters report, in a speech in Bahrain Mattis said: “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.”
“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,” Mattis added.
The INF treaty between the U.S. and Russia was signed in 1987 by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It eliminated all short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe.
The Trump administration has threatened to quit the treaty because it says Moscow has been violating it with a new missile that can reach 500-5,500 kilometers. Moscow has denied that and said it wants to maintain the INF Treaty.
The U.S. rhetoric on the accord has raised fears that the only other major treaty to limit how many atomic weapons the U.S. and Russia can have — known as New START — may not be extended when it expires in 2021.