The United States President Donald Trump has proposed a new Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) on Tuesday, that has a potential to involve India into it as he delivered his second State of the Union address speech to a joint session of the US Congress.
According to news reports, while defending its termination from the INF Treaty with Russia, Trump, in his State of the Union speech, said, “Perhaps we can negotiate a different agreement, adding China others, or perhaps we can’t” in which case, we will outspend and out-innovate all others by far.
the INF Treaty which was marked by Soviet communist party general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the US president banned land-based missiles from 1,000 to 5,000 km.
Some of the Prithvi and Agni class nuclear missiles in an arsenal of India could fall under the ambit of such pact as well including some of Pakistanis Babur, Ghauri and Shaheen missiles.
Trump, to defend his withdrawal from the INF Treaty with Russia, said, “Russia repeatedly violated its terms.” However, he did not suggest India by name, but called for the US negotiations with the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan in order “to reach a political settlement in Afghanistan”.
Trump said, “My administration is holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban.” but, further added, “We do not know whether we will achieve an agreement, but we do know that after two decades of war, the hour has come to at least try for peace.”
Another relevance to India was on trade when Trump asked for assistance for the Reciprocal Trade Act. He said, “If another country places an unfair tariff on an American product, we can charge them the exact same tariffs on the same products that they sell to us.”