The treaty has been in effect since 1987.
Donald Trump has announced that the United States will pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty — an arms control treaty with Russia, signed and ratified by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The agreement came towards the tail end of the cold war — and eliminated all nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, with ranges of 500–1,000 kilometers (310–620 mi) (short-range) and 1,000–5,500 km (620–3,420 mi) (intermediate-range).
Now, Trump has said that the US will pull out of the treaty, amidst claims that Russia is not abiding by it.
Speaking to reports on Saturday evening, Trump said “We’re the ones who have stayed in the agreement and we’ve honoured the agreement, but Russia has not unfortunately honoured the agreement, so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out”.
“Russia has violated the agreement. They’ve been violating it for many years. I don’t know why president Obama didn’t negotiate or pull out. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons we’re not allowed to”.
In 2014, Barack Obama accused Russia of breaching the terms of the treaty by testing weapons banned by the INF.
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