25 OCT 2018
AT 21:25 ET
In a New
York Times op-ed, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev warned that Donald
Trump has started a nuclear arms race — and that he wants to
be released from all geopolitical constraints.
Gorbachev
wrote that although “there are still too many nuclear weapons in the world,”
disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation agreements between the US and Russia
have greatly benefited the world.
“Today, this tremendous accomplishment, of
which our two nations can be rightfully proud, is in jeopardy,” the former USSR
president wrote. “President Trump announced last week the United
States’ plan to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty and
his country’s intention to build up nuclear arms.”
The United
States’ pullout from the INFT, Gorbachev wrote, is unsurprising given Trump’s
behavior.
“As we have
seen during the past two years, the president of the United States has a very
different purpose in mind,” he wrote. “It is to release the United States from
any obligations, any constraints, and not just regarding nuclear missiles.”
“The United
States has in effect taken the initiative in destroying the entire system of
international treaties and accords that served as the underlying foundation for
peace and security following World War II,” the Soviet leader added.
The
president who worked along with Ronald Reagan to bring down the Berlin Wall and
end the Cold War noted that “those who hope to benefit from a global free-for-all
are deeply mistaken.”
“There will
be no winner in a ‘war of all against all’ — particularly if it ends in a
nuclear war,” Gorbachev concluded. “And that is a possibility that cannot be
ruled out. An unrelenting arms race, international tensions, hostility and
universal mistrust will only increase the risk.”
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