Britain stood “absolutely resolute” with the US today as Donald Trump announced he would pull out of a decades-old nuclear weapons pact with Russia.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson blamed Moscow for endangering the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and called on the Kremlin to “get its house in order”.
But campaigners claimed the President’s move , coupled with UK support, risked a fresh Cold War-style arms race.
The treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 bans the arch rivals from possessing, producing or test-firing ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 300 and 3400 miles.
Williamson claimed the Kremlin had made a “mockery” of the INF.
He said: “Our close and long-term ally of course is the United States and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty obligation that it signed.”
He went on: “We of course want to see this treaty continue to stand but it does require two parties to be committed to it and at the moment you have one party that is ignoring it.
“It is Russia that is in breach and it is Russia that needs to get its house in order.”
But the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament feared the posturing would trigger a fresh arms race.
General secretary Kate Hudson said: “We utterly condemn the Defence Secretary’s comment that the British Government’s support for the US administration at this time is ‘absolutely resolute’.
“Britain should be voicing strong opposition to this dangerous move rather than fanning the flames that can lead to nuclear war.”
She added: “This is a reckless move by Trump. Tearing up the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty will mark the end of the restraints on nuclear arsenals achieved in the 1980s.
“The danger is that we will see spiralling arsenals on a Cold War scale.”
Mr Trump did not outline any recent violations of the pact.
But in 2017 White House national security officials said Russia had deployed a cruise missile in violation of the treaty.
The Kremlin was also accused of breaking the agreement by former president Barack Obama’s administration.
Mr Trump warned the US will restart its own programme unless Russia and China - which is not signed up to the INF - stop developing or possessing the weapons.
“We’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to,” Mr Trump said after a rally in Nevada.
“We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons.
“But if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable.”
