U.S. Is Bent on 'Absolute Military
Supremacy,' Mikhail Gorbachev Claims: 'Their
Obsession With Weapons Is Crazy'
By
David Brennan
December 20, 2019 "Information
Clearing House"
-Former Soviet premier
Mikhail Gorbachev has urged President Donald
Trump's administration to re-engage with
Russia on landmark arms control treaties,
warning that the collapse of Cold War-era
nuclear weapon limits threatens global
catastrophe.
Speaking with Japanese newspaper The
Asahi Shimbun, Gorbachev lamented
America's withdrawal from two key arms
control treaties signed during the Cold
War—the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT)
during President Geroge W. Bush's tenure,
and the more recent withdrawal from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty.
Russia has also
since suspended participation in the INF
Treaty, prompting concerns of a new arms
race. The infographic below, provided by
Statista,
shows the estimated global nuclear weapons
arsenals as of December 2017.
Gorbachev is a
prominent advocate of
nuclear disarmament.
He told the Asahi he is "still
praying for" the destruction of all nuclear
weapons, noting that the number of warheads
in Russia and the U.S. has reduced by more
than 80 percent since the peak years of the
Cold War.
But
he warned that this "peace dividend" is now
at risk with the collapse of the ABMT and
INF Treaty. It is also unclear whether New
START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)—the
successor to START I that Gorbachev helped
craft—will be renewed when it expires in
2021.
The Trump
administration said last year that it would
ditch the 1987
INF Treaty,
which banned ground-launched nuclear and
conventional missiles with ranges from 310
miles 3,417 miles. The White House accused
Russia of violating the deal by developing
the SSC-8 missile.
But
Gorbachev blamed Washington for the
development. "The decision by the United
States to withdraw from the INF threatens to
unleash a sequence of events that would move
to undo" the post-Cold War peace dividend,
he said.
"Out of the
three principal pillars of global strategic
stability—the ABMT, INF and START—only one
is left," he added, noting that the future
of
New START
is far from certain.
"What's behind the United States' decision
to withdraw from the INF is their striving
to free themselves of any obligations with
respect to weapons and obtain absolute
military supremacy," Gorbachev said.
"That is an illusory aim, an unfulfilled
hope. Hegemony by one single country is not
possible in today's world. The result would
be destabilization of the global strategic
situation, a new arms race and all the
randomness and unpredictability of global
politics. The security of every country,
including the United States, will suffer as
a result."
Russia is responsible for the termination of
the INF Treaty. The United States engaged
Russia since 2013 to return it to compliance
with the treaty but Russia chose to retain
and deploy its non-compliant missile system
rather than eliminate it and preserve the
treaty.
A
State Department spokesperson told
Newsweek that the U.S. "remains
committed to effective arms control that
advances U.S., allied, and partner security,
is verifiable and enforceable, and includes
partners that comply responsibly with their
obligations."
The
spokesperson explained that Trump has
"directed us to think more broadly than New
START and include both China and Russia in
our next steps. We stand ready to engage
with both Russia and China on arms control
negotiations that meet our criteria."
"The Administration is evaluating the
possibility of an extension of the New START
Treaty, taking into account the threats we
face today, the changing security
environment, and Russia's statement that it
has no preconditions to extension."
Gorbachev said the U.S. must bear
responsibility for nuclear proliferation,
given it was the first nation to harness the
technology.
"They told our leaders in talks that they
had developed the bomb. They said this to
intimidate us, so we would bow down to
America," he told the newspaper. "Their
obsession with weapons is crazy."
Gorbachev called on both the U.S. and Russia
to "restore the movement toward a world
without nuclear weapons."
Both nations
have signalled additional investment in
their nuclear arsenals, including a fresh
focus on low-yield,
tactical nuclear weapons.
Such warheads have a more local impact,
reducing the danger of escalation and
subsequent mutually assured destruction
(MAD).
Though MAD has kept nuclear states at peace
for decades, Gorbachev said it offers no
guarantee for the future. "Nuclear
deterrence will not protect the world from a
nuclear accident or from nuclear terrorism,
but would keep it under a constant threat,"
he told the Asahi.
"The key to resolving security issues lies
not in weapons, but in politics," he added,
bemoaning the freeze in bilateral relations
between Washington and Moscow. "Despite
everything, I believe that this is still
within our capabilities," he added.
As
for Trump, the Cold War leader said, "I hear
from the current president of the United
States that they are the richest country,
that they have more money than anybody else,
so there is going to be a new arms race. Who
is America planning to fight, however? The
first country to come to mind, of course, is
Russia."
"We
should never let ourselves embark on a
course of developing nuclear weapons again
and of a new arms race," Gorbachev warned.
"We have to stop working on pipe dreams, and
engage with realpolitik. We don't need an
apocalypse! We need peace!"
This
article has been updated to include comment
from the State Department.
This article was originally published by "Newsweek"
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