Mikhail Gorbachev says withdrawing U.S. from nuclear treaty poses ‘dire threat to peace’

Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the former Soviet Union, has warned President Trump against withdrawing from a nuclear arms control agreement made near the end of the Cold War between Moscow and the Reagan administration.

In an editorial published Thursday, Mr. Gorbachev wrote that the White House would pose a “dire threat to peace” and initiate “a new arms race” if the Trump administration follows through with the president’s recent threat of withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty reached between the Soviet Union and United States more than 30 years ago.

“I am convinced that those who hope to benefit from a global free-for-all are deeply mistaken,” Mr. Gorbachev wrote for The New York Times. “There will be no winner in a ’war of all against all’ — particularly if it ends in a nuclear war. 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.”

Signed during a White House ceremony in 1987 by former President Ronald Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev, the INF treaty called for the Cold War foes to eliminate each nation’s stockpile of short- and intermediate-rang missiles and missile launchers, resolving decades of tensions related to the risk of either initiating a nuclear attack.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Nevada this week. “We’re going to terminate the agreement, and we’re going to pull out.”

“Russia has violated the agreement. They’ve been violating it for many years and I don’t know why President Obama didn’t negotiate or pull out,” Mr. Trump added. “We’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and do weapons and we’re not allowed to. We’re the ones that have stayed in the agreement and we’ve honored the agreement but Russia has not unfortunately honored the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement, we’re going to pull out.”

A top Kremlin official, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said that withdrawing the U.S. from the treaty would be a “very dangerous step,” state-owned media reported earlier this week.

Mr. Gorbachev, 87, wrote in the op-ed that the president’s threat is part of a larger trend witnessed throughout his administration.

“With enough political will, any problems of compliance with the existing treaties could be resolved. But as we have seen during the past two years, the president of the United States has a very different purpose in mind. It is to release the United States from any obligations, any constraints, and not just regarding nuclear missiles,” Mr. Gorbachev wrote.

“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,” he added.

The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment.