nuclear-news

Time to strengthen, not break down the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty,

Stop the nuclear treaty breakdown before it escalates WP, By Editorial Board December 28 THE OBAMA administration has been careful to say that some matters of bilateral interest with Russia can remain on the table despite the confrontation over Russia’s seizure of Crimea and subversion in eastern Ukraine. One such area still under discussion has been the claim made this year by the United States that Russia violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles in Europe. Russia claims the United States also has violated the treaty. Yet this conversation is going nowhere. The treaty is valuable to both nations, and Russia, in particular, ought not to slow-walk resolution of a nettlesome disagreement.

The treaty, which entered into force in 1988, required the elimination of all the approximately 800 U.S. and 1,800 Soviet ground-launched missileswith maximum ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, as well as their launchers and associated support equipment. It was a Cold War landmark that reversed a dangerous period in the late 1970s and early 1980s when both sides were deploying nuclear-armed missiles in Europe aimed at each other. The missiles were eliminated by 1991. The treaty barred possession, production or flight tests of such weapons………http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-the-nuclear-treaty-breakdown-before-it-escalates/2014/12/28/c08ef924-820c-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html

December 31, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, weapons and war