ByPANMENGQI inBeijing ,
RENQI in Moscow
and DONGLESHUO in Washington
T
he Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty, or
INF Treaty, signed between
Washington and Moscow in
1987 , ended when the United States
formally withdrew from the treaty
onAug 2.Experts warned the move
is bound to weaken mutual trust
between the major powers, encour-
age a nuclear arms race, and raise
the level of risk in the world’s secu-
rity landscape.
Washington unilaterally started
the withdrawal process in early Feb-
ruary, citing Russia’s violation of the
deal. Moscow, which has repeatedly
denied Washington’s accusation,
also suspended its participation in
the INF Treaty, the first-ever pact
reached by the two sides on nuclear
disarmament and a major step for-
ward in restricting the arms race.
The INF was negotiated by then-
US President Ronald Reagan and
Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gor-
bachev. It banned land-based mis-
siles with a range between 500 and
5,500 kilometers, reducing the ability
of both countries to launch a nuclear
strike on short notice. It played a
major role in maintaining the stra-
tegic balance inEurope and keeping
the peace between the NATO and the
Warsaw Pact countries.
Experts worry that the annul-
ment of the nuclear control pacts
will eventually lead to a more com-
plex and dangerous relationship
between Washington and Moscow
in the future.
William Perry, former US defense
secretary, tweeted that “the US with-
drawal from the INF Treaty today
deals a great blow to nuclear arms
control and global security, we are
sleepwalking into a new arms race”.
Zhang Yifei, a researcher at the
ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences,
said the withdrawal of the US from
the treaty is expected to damage
global security. It will further damp-
en US-Russian relations and couldopen the door to a dangerous new
era of unconstrained military com-
petition between the US and Russia,
Zhang said.
“The current course will lead to
a less stable and secure world. The
United States and Russia will be
less able to predict future develop-
ments on the other side and thus will
have to make expensive worst-case
assumptions,” Steven Pifer, a non-
resident scholar with theBrookings
Institution think tank, told Xinhua
NewsAgency.
Viktor Murakhovsky, a Russian
defense analyst, said it makes no
military sense for both the US and
Russia to start a new arms race by
increasing their launchers and nucle-
ar warheads, but the competition in
the realm of military technology will
continue between the two countries
after the death of the treaty.
“The situation in this area is
already very difficult and it will
only get worse, something cata-
strophic will happen to the mili-
tary-political trust between the USand Russia,” Murakhovsky said.
UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio
Guterres also lamented that with the
demiseof the INF Treaty, the world
lost an invaluable brake on nuclear
war.
In fact, the worries are not an over-
reaction. Hours after the collapse of
the historic arms control pact, the
Pentagon announced that the US will
fully develop ground-launched con-
ventional missiles. Russia’sDeputy
Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has
warned that if Washington deploys
missiles prohibited by the treaty near
Russia’s border, his country reserves
the right to respond in kind.
“It is a pity that rather than rene-
gotiate the treaty to suit the times,
both sides chose, for their own
purposes, to mutually abandon the
treaty and its structure,” said Larry
CataBacker, a professor of law and
international affairs at Pennsylvania
State University.
Backer said the death of the trea-
ty is a reminder for theEuropean
Union that the old assurances ofthe detente between the US and the
Soviet Union have at last been swept
away and, as a result, theEU might
face higher security risks.
In a recent report, Russian news-
paper Izvestia said that collapse of
the INF Treaty hurts everyone, nota-
blyEurope.
Izvestia said it is necessary to
begin working on a new arms agree-
ment and theEU should support
any initiative that would lead to the
signing of such a document.
Despite the termination of the trea-
ty, Russia said it is ready to return to
the implementation of that key arms
control accord, according to Konstan-
tin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign
AffairsCommittee of the Russian Fed-
erationCouncil, the upper house of
the Russian Federation parliament.
Kosachev said Russia is not bury-
ing the INF Treaty, and it is ready to
get back to it at any time, “if the US
also does so”.Contactthewritersat
[email protected]Expertswarn move further dampens Washington-Moscow ties, threatens global security
USexitfromINFa‘greatblow’
SEOUL — Waving banners and
signs and chanting anti-Japan
slogans, thousands of protest-
ers marched in Seoul onAug 3 to
express their anger at Japan’s deci-
sion to downgrade the Republic of
Korea’s trade status amid an escalat-
ing diplomatic row.
Huge crowds swarmed the streets
in front of the Japanese embassy, car-
rying signs that read “Boycott Japan”
and “NoAbe”, referring to Japanese
Prime Minister ShinzoAbe. They
shouted “We condemn theAbe gov-
ernment” and “Let’s end humiliating
South Korea (ROK)-Japan relations”.
The protesters later marched to a
nearby boulevard for a candlelight
vigil, also calling for the Seoul gov-
ernment to end a military intelli-
gence-sharing pact with Tokyo and
fully discard a 2015 deal between
the countries over compensation
for ROK women who were forced to
work in Japan’s World War II mili-
tary brothels.
Police did not immediately pro-
vide a crowd estimate, but organiz-
ers said about 15,000 people partici-
pated in the rallies.
The protest came a day after
Japan’sCabinet approved the
removal of the ROK from a list of
countries with preferential trade
status, which would require Japa-
nese companies to apply for case-
by-case approvals for exports to the
ROK of hundreds of items deemed
sensitive.
The decision followed a July mea-
sure to strengthen controls on cer-
tain technology exports to ROK com-
panies that rely on Japanese materi-als to produce semiconductors and
display screens used in smartphones
and TVs, which are key ROK export
products.
Seoul said the Japanese trade
curbs could hurt its export-depen-
dent economy and has accusedJapan of weaponizing trade to
retaliate over bilateral disputes
stemming from their bitter wartime
history.
Asenior ROK official also said
onAug 3 that Seoul is exploring all
options in the trade dispute, includ-ing scrapping an intelligence-shar-
ing pact.
In Japan, a controversial statue
symbolizing “comfort women” was
withdrawn from an art exhibition
onAug 3 after organizers received
security threats.
Comfort women is a euphemism
for those, many of them Korean,
forced to work in Japan’s WWII mili-
tary brothels and is a highly emo-
tional topic for people from both
countries.
Japan said the issue was settled by
past agreements and apologies, but
many ROK citizens say Japan did not
go far enough and have demanded
further compensation for victims.
The current flare-up over the issue
comes during the trade dispute
between the countries.
StatueofaGirlofPeace has attract-
ed a flood of complaints since Aichi
Triennale , an international art exhi-
bition being held in central Japan,
opened onAug 1, organizers said.
The festival decided to remove
the statue after it received “terror
threats” by telephone and email,
Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura told
a news conference onAug 3.
“Yesterday we also received a fax
saying, ‘Get rid of it fast or else I’m
going to bring a can of gasoline and
cause some trouble,’” Omura said.
AGENCIESJapan ends preferential status for ROK as diplomatic row escalates
ThousandsmarchinSeoultoprotestTokyotradecurbs
Protestersholdup placardsreading “No (Japan)”duringarallyagainst Japan’sdecision to removethe
Republicof Koreafromaso-called“whitelist” of favored export partners,neartheJapaneseembassy
in Seoul onAug 3.JUNGYEON/AGENCEFRANCE-PRESSE10 WORLDNEWS August 9-15, 2019 CHINADAILY GLOBALWEEKLY