UK stands 'absolutely resolute' with the US after Trump pulls out of Russia nuclear weapons treaty

Defence secretary says Russia has made a ‘mockery’ of the 1987 pact

The UK stands “absolutely resolute” with the US president Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a nuclear weapons pact with Russia, the defence secretary has said.

Gavin Williamson accused Moscow of “making a mockery” of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and called on the Kremlin to “get its house in order”.

“Our close and long-term ally of course is the United States and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty obligation that it signed,” Mr Williamson said.

“We of course want to see this treaty continue to stand but it does require two parties to be committed to it and at the moment you have one party that is ignoring it.”

“It is Russia that is in breach and it is Russia that needs to get its house in order,” added the defence secretary, who is in the US while the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Elizabeth visits New York.

The INF was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 and bans the US and Russia from possessing or test-firing ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 300 and 3,400 miles.

Mr Trump claimed Russia has been violating the agreement for many years. He did not give any specific examples but the US has previously accused Russia of breaking the pact by developing a cruise missile, known as 9M729.

The president also warned that the US would restart its own programme unless a new deal was signed with Russia and China, which is not a signatory to the INF.

“We’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to,” Mr Trump said after a rally in Nevada.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable.”

Mr Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, is due to meet with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev on a visit to Moscow this week.

The Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, released earlier this year, called for research into new US ground-launched medium-range missiles as a way of pressuring Moscow back into compliance.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkhov said the planned withdrawal was “a very dangerous step”, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Mr Trump’s decision to pull out was also described as “continuing blackmail” by the head of Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev.

“The situation is critical, and the threats to peace are getting a particular shape,” he said. “Now the Western allies of the US need to make a choice: either to opt for the same path, which possibly leads to a new war, or take the side of a common sense, judging by the instinct for self-preservation.”

Russia has claimed that US missile defences violate the pact.

The dispute has raised fears that the US and Russia are slipping back into a cold war arms race and that pulling out of the pact will allow Moscow to freely deploy its cruise missile.

Democrat Elliot Engel, a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said: “President Reagan concluded this treaty to reduce the risk of war in Europe.

“We owe it to our allies and to the American people to do everything we can bring Russia back into compliance and preserve peace.

“A quick withdrawal will simply be a win for Russia and clear the way for our chief adversary to expand its missile arsenal.”

Alexey Pushkov, head of the Russian Federation Council’s temporary commission on informational policy and communication, said: “In case of US exit, a powerful blow will be delivered to the whole system of strategic stability in the world.

“The first blow was US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty in 2001. The US is once again initiating the withdrawal from the treaty.”

Additional reporting by Press Association