The head of a House panel with oversight of U.S. nuclear weapons expressed hope Tuesday that the United States and Russia might be able to work together, in a post-Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty world, to prevent a nuclear standoff on NATO borders.
Citing Russian noncompliance dating back about a decade, the Trump administration announced Feb. 2 it would suspend U.S. obligations under the 1987 accord, leaving the country free as of Aug. 2 to deploy conventional and nuclear missiles with a range of roughly 310 miles to 3,100 miles.
Russia subsequently said it too would withdraw from the treaty. Officials from both countries have said they do not currently plan to deploy nuclear-armed INF-range missiles along NATO borders — something the chair of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hoped could be verified in some bilateral way, even if the treaty should fall by the wayside.
In the subcommittee’s first hearing of the 116th Congress, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) asked an ex-government official if it would be possible “to separate conventional from nuclear warheads in our consideration of salvaging what’s left of the INF treaty.”
That ex-official, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Alexander Vershbow, offered a qualified yes.
“If there were political will on the Russian’s part to cooperate, I think we could have sufficient confidence that Russia honored an obligation only to deploy conventionally armed versions of this 9M729 and future INF systems that they have in the pipeline,” Vershbow said.
Of all the lawmakers who attended Tuesday’s hearing, only Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) spoke of saving the INF Treaty. Keating, who said he believes Russia violated the accord, wondered if the two nations could find the time, in the six months between the U.S. withdrawal announcement and its formal withdrawal from INF, to negotiate the federation’s return to compliance.
One witness, a legend in arms-control circles, threw cold water on that idea.
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said the U.S. and Russia could only reach an agreement to save the treaty if President Donald Trump was interested in talking to Russia about the matter.
“At this point, there’s not evidence that that’s the case,” Lugar said.
