IPB calls to Defend the INF treaty

The International Peace Bureau calls on all people and nations around the world to use all political and diplomatic means to defend the INF treaty and to work for a nuclear-free world.

President Trump’s threatened U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty marks a dangerous escalation on the path to a 21st century U.S.-Russian Cold War.

The INF Treaty, for which millions of people around the world had fought, was negotiated in 1987 and marked the end of the Cold War.

It provides for elimination and permanent renunciation of future deployments of all US and Russian nuclear and conventional ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles, reducing the danger of Europe becoming the primary theater for nuclear war.

Abandoning the Treaty, combined with the possible expiration of the New START Treaty, will eliminate all nuclear arms agreements between the countries that posses 90% of the current nuclear arsenal, opening the way for an unrestrained and dangerous nuclear arms race.

Mr. Trump’s threat to abandon the Treaty is an expression of his commitment to U.S. world dominance, including weakening and containing China. It builds on the recent history of NATO expansion and plans to deploy “more usable” nuclear weapons to Europe, the withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, and the commitment to develop and deploy a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons, their delivery systems and missile defenses.

President Putin has responded by reiterating Russia’s commitment to maintain the Mutual Assured Destruction balance of forces with the U.S. Nuclear-capable missiles have been deployed to Kaliningrad in the heart of Europe, and he has threatened to match U.S. missile deployments in Europe.

We urgently appeal for negotiations to preserve and reinforce the INF Treaty, for the adoption of and adherence to no first use doctrines, for credible commitments to fulfill the nuclear powers’ Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty disarmament obligations, and for nuclear arsenal reductions with savings redirected to address essential human needs.

IPB  calls all countries to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by 122 countries in 2017, that is offering a solid international framework toward nuclear weapons elimination.

The appeal can be signed via this link https://goo.gl/forms/1bOUoTZ5WKOPzF8p2 Or simply by sending an e-mail to info@ipb-office.berlin and stating your intention to support the IPB call

More information: https://www.ipb.org/activities/2018-activities/defend-the-inf-treaty/

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