Arms control is thing of the past, Russia's top general says

Russia and the United States express regret over the collapse of arms control treaties, citing lack of trust and double standards.

Russia now views arms control over the vast nuclear arsenals that were built up during the Cold War to be a thing of the past due to the lack of trust between Moscow and the West, Russia's top general said on Wednesday (DEcember 18, 2024).

Russia and the United States, by far the biggest nuclear powers, have both expressed regret about the disintegration of the tangle of arms control treaties which sought to slow the arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov accused the United States of stoking conflicts across the world and sinking key Cold War arms control treaties. He said Russia, in response, would develop ties with China, India, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela.

"On the whole, the topic of arms control remains in the past, since a return to a minimum level of trust is impossible today due to the double standards of the West," Gerasimov was quoted as saying by the Defence Ministry.

"Without trust, it is impossible to create an effective mechanism for mutual control," he said. "Many countries have begun to think about adequate response measures."

The United States, which casts Russia and China as the biggest nation-state threats to the West, blames Russia for the collapse of agreements such as the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The United States formally withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019, citing Russian violations which Moscow denied. The United State withdrew from the ABM treaty in 2002.