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Congressman Lamborn Praises U.S. Withdrawal from INF Treaty

February 1, 2019

Washington D.C. - Today, the Trump Administration announced the United States would formally withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The treaty required the United States and Soviet Union to eliminate all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers and cease development of the same. In response to this announcement, Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) issued the following statement:


"I applaud the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty. Once a useful diplomatic tool to enable joint arms control efforts with the Soviet Union, this now-defunct treaty only serves to harm U.S. strategic interests and enable our near-peer competitors: namely Russia and China. For over 10 years, Russia has violated the INF while America unilaterally upheld it. In the meantime, China has capitalized on this to develop a robust missile force in the Pacific which outranges the existing U.S. arsenal because of our self-imposed restrictions. This decision will rebalance our posture in the Indo-Pacific and begin lowering the risk to our troops and allies."