The finalized Republican Party Platform unveiled this week calls for modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, criticizes the Obama administration’s disarmament and arms control initiatives, and indicates the United States will confront “Russian belligerence” while promoting a partnership between the two countries on common concerns such as nuclear nonproliferation.
The platform was released to coincide with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where Donald Trump was officially nominated Tuesday as the party’s candidate for president. On national defense, it espouses rebuilding the U.S. military to be “the strongest on earth” and proclaims, “we believe in a resurgent America.”
According to the new GOP platform, the Obama administration’s “unilateral approach to disarmament” has emboldened China and Russia to behave more aggressively in their respective regions and has allowed the expansion of an Islamist terror network in the Middle East.
“We support maintaining and, if warranted, increasing sanctions, together with our allies, against Russia unless and until Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are fully restored,” the document says.
The platform calls for the United States to “abandon arms control treaties that benefit our adversaries without improving our national security.” To do this, it says, the U.S. should deploy a multilayered missile defense system, modernize its nuclear arsenal, and restore its relationship with allies under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
In particular, the platform notes Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and criticizes the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty as an accord “weak in verification and definitions” that has led the United States to reduce its nuclear arsenal while allowing Russia to build up its own.
At the same time, the platform calls for maintaining a friendship with the Russian people based on common concerns – “Ending terrorism, combating nuclear proliferation, promoting trade, and more.”
“We will meet the return of Russian belligerence with the same resolve that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union,” it says.
