Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) pushed the Obama Administration to take a harder stance against Russia’s alleged violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, suggesting that not treating the violation as a “red line” reduces U.S. credibility among its allies. “I think that should be very concerning to all of us,” Rubio said at a Heritage Foundation event yesterday, “because its impact goes well beyond that particular agreement. Its impact affects how other nations view us and the decisions they make and the assumptions they make about what’s in their own national security, if they believe the U.S. is no longer a reliable security partner.”
Administration officials have said they are still investigating the violations, but Rubio suggested the fact that the Administration is still pushing for another round of arms control negotiations with Russia also hurts U.S. credibility. He said that issue is being debated in the Senate’s National Security Working Group that he co-chairs. “One of the areas we continue to focus on is the argument that we should not be entering anymore negotiations with the Russians on any weapons systems so long as they are openly violating [treaties]—and I mean openly. All you have to do is read Russian media reports to learn that they are habitually violating multiple different agreements. I hope that will become a priority for us. We should take that more seriously than we do.”
