Trump Confirms U.S. Withdrawal From Landmark Nuclear Treaty With Russia

President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that the United States will withdraw from a landmark nuclear arms treaty with Russia. “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump told reporters as he boarded Air Force One in Nevada. He was referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a historic 1986 agreement between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev that limited production of the weapons by both countries. The Trump administration has sought to beef up the U.S. nuclear arsenal in an effort to counter a Chinese arms buildup in the Pacific. “We’ll have to develop those weapons,” he told reporters on Saturday. The White House had said as late as Friday that no decision had been made on the INF. The move marks the Trump administration’s first withdrawal from a major arms control treaty.