WW3 THREAT: Trump’s call to quit nuclear deal could spark new global ARMS RACE with China

Countries like China, India and Pakistan could be caught up in a “cascading” arms race if President Trump makes good on his threat to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

And US withdrawal could also threaten security in European nations, including the UK, if Russia is once again free to stockpile short and medium-range rockets.

President Trump announced earlier this month he was withdrawing the United States from the INF – a bilateral deal with Russia which prohibits either side from developing, testing or possessing certain types of cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

But during a campaign rally on October 20, Mr Trump claimed Vladimir Putin has been “violating it for many years” and accused China – which is not a party to the treaty – of developing the weapons, too.

The US leader provided no details to back up his assertion but some in Washington see the 1987 accord as outdated and say a new ground-launched missile deployed by Moscow is in breach of the agreement.

And while a formal decision on whether to withdraw the US from the treaty has yet to be made, an arms race in Asia could be triggered if Mr Trump follows through on his threat.

China’s role as a major supplier and importer of weapons is a key element in the US leader’s desire to withdraw from the treaty, CNBC reports.

Chinese missiles pose a major threat to US warships in the Western Pacific and American military bases in the region, according to Indian foreign policy expert Raja Mohan.

But he explained the terms of the INF means US missile forces in the area are limited.

The academic wrote that some in Washington, including Mr Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton, support quitting the treaty because it has “left China and North Korea free to undermine the security of the US and its allies in Asia”.

China has not signed up to the INF and has already amassed an arsenal of some 2,000 ballistic medium-range prohibited by the accord.

But if the US withdraws, Beijing could ramp up production of more rockets in response to the threat of Washington deploying its own weapons in the Western Pacific.

Amit Bhandari, medium-rangefellow of energy and environment studies at Mumbai-based think-tank Gateway House, said: “China may now find itself at the receiving end of an asymmetrical threat that it was earlier posing to other powers in the region.”

And such a reaction by China could soon spill over into India, which Pakistan.

Rajesh Basrur, professor of international relations at Singapore-based Nanyang Technological University, wrote in a note: “Arms racing is a cascading phenomenon.

“When China competes with the US, it arouses insecurity and a competitive drive in India, which in turn does the same in Pakistan.”