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.
Under New START, the U.S. and Russia must cap their nuclear arsenals by February 2018 at 700 deployed ICBMS, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers; 1,550 fielded strategic warheads; and 800 deployed and non-deployed long-range launchers.
Critics of the treaty say that because of the starting asymmetries in the nuclear arsenal of both countries, the U.S. has been forced to make much deeper cuts to its arsenal than Russia has. In fact, Russia has increased its deployed warhead and delivery vehicle numbers since the treaty entered into force.
According to the latest July 1 aggregate treaty numbers, the U.S. is currently at 741 deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers; Russia remains below the treaty limit at 521. However, while the United States currently has 1,481 deployed strategic warheads, Russia is over the limit at 1,735. Both countries are slightly above the limit on deployed and non-deployed long-range launchers, with the United States at 878 and Russia at 856.
At the same time, the GOP 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.
Russia featured less prominently in the 2012 GOP platform, which did note the same common concerns as the latest platform and called on Russian leaders “to reconsider the path they have been following: suppression of opposition parties, the press, and institutions of civil society.”
The latest platform also says the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran is non-binding for the next president due to the lack of Senate approval that would have given it treaty status. “We must retain all options in dealing with a situation that gravely threatens our security, our interests, and the survival of our friends.”
The GOP Platform Committee, led by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, was co-chaired by Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Gov. Mary Fallin (Okla.), and Rep. Virginia Foxx (N.C.).
