Trump Cannot Be Trusted to Negotiate a Nuclear Arms Deal with Putin

President Trump has announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) because the Russians had long been in violation of its provisions.  The treaty and its follow-on, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (START) were linchpins in the arms-control framework that helped end the Cold War and eventually brought an end to the Soviet Union.  Experts now are worried that we may soon be in another nuclear arms race with Russia. 

In response to the Trump administration’s announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his nation would develop and deploy whatever weapons systems are needed to remain secure. These remarks were made in his annual address to members of the Russian Parliament on February 20th of this month.  Putin’s aggressive tone appeared to be intended, in part, to convinced Washington not to abandon the treaty.  In addition, Putin also made the provocative statement that Russia now has the capability of launching nuclear weapons aimed at the U.S. for which he says we have no defense.

We have heard this heated rhetoric before from previous Russian leaders.

In the late 1980s Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, appointed me to be an Official Observer to the Arms Control Talks with the Soviet Union being held in Geneva.

In Geneva, I was briefed on the negotiations by our Chief Negotiator, Ambassador Max Kampelman.  It was a sobering experience. While the Ambassador was a soft-spoken man he was a tough negotiator.  I found him to be very much a gentleman. And so apparently did President Ronald Reagan who appointed him to lead the arms-control talks even though Kampelman had served as a campaign advisor to his old friend, Walter Mondale, in his presidential campaign against Reagan.  It is a good example of how political leaders used to come together–Democrats and Republicans–in an effort to make our nation and the world a better and safer place.

The situation today is much different.  We have an unpredictable president.  Not surprisingly our NATO allies are unnerved by what appears to be a return to the Cold War especially at a time when President Trump has raised the possibility of America leaving NATO.  Our allies have other good reasons to be concerned, as do Americans. Any Trump administration negotiating with Russia over nuclear weapons control must be viewed with the cold eye of skepticism.  

There are confirmed media reports that over 100 individuals associated with Donald Trump, his business, campaign, transition and presidency have had meaningful contacts and dealings with not only Russian nationals but in several instances with individuals associated with the Russian intelligence services. 

The president himself has had five person-to-person meetings with Putin where no other American was present and in some instances the president destroyed the documents associated with them. He met with the Russian Ambassador and Foreign Minister in the Oval Office telling them he had gotten rid of that “nut job” Jim Comey, the FBI Director, and would now be free of him and the investigation into possible Trump-Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign. And there is so much more. 

Because of these inexplicable relationships between Team Trump and Russian operatives, it has been widely reported the FBI has opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether or not the president is an agent of a foreign adversary. To add to this speculation, the Associated Press has reported President Trump sought Russia’s “advice” prior to his nuclear summit with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.

These unusual circumstances make negotiation over nuclear weapons with Russia or North Korea problematic and more dangerous. Americans must consider whether or not President Trump has been compromised by Russia to the extent he is unable to represent the national security interests of the United States in such negotiations. Any nuclear agreement “negotiated” by this administration must be critically reviewed with the possibility that the end result might not be in our nation’s best interest.

President Reagan, when discussing his administration’s nuclear arms negotiations strategy famously cautioned: “Trust but verify.” It’s a hard maxim to follow when the American president is the one we are unable to trust.

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Tom Coleman is a former Republican Member of Congress from Missouri and has served as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and at American University. He served as an Official Congressional Observer to the Arms Control Talks in Geneva.

Photo Credit: Sputnik International