Inside Story

Will US exit from the INF Treaty increase risk of war?

President Trump says it’s time for the US to end the arms pact it signed with Russia more than 30 years ago.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty was signed in 1987 by US President Ronald Regan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, helping bring an end to the Cold War.

The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 brought the United States and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war, but Europe became the key nuclear theatre, with missiles capable of mass destruction facing each other across the Iron Curtain for decades.

The INF treaty defused the situation, but both sides now accuse each other of breaking the agreement.

US President Donald Trump says Washington has had enough, and plans to pull out.

Does this mean a return to the nuclear arms race and does it increase the risk of conflict?

Presenter: Imran Khan

Guests:

Lawrence Korb –  former US assistant secretary of defence

Dmitry Babich – political analyst at Voice of Russia

Maxwell Downman – nuclear policy analyst at the British American Security Information Council