The next international agreement President Trump will upend is a nuclear weapons treaty.

According to the Associated Press, Trump said Saturday he will pull the U.S. from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which he says Russia has been violating.


The announcement comes after reports that Trump was planning to tell Russia next week he would withdraw the U.S. from the treaty, signed by the two nations in 1987, which governs ballistic and cruise missiles launched from the ground with a range that can be thousands of miles. The New York Times reported Friday that the move would help the U.S. respond to a build-up of Chinese weapons in the Pacific.

The Russians have been developing new cruise missiles that violate the treaty, which Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned earlier this month was an untenable situation. His comments came after U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said the U.S. did not want to withdraw from the treaty, but was looking for a way to bring Russia into compliance.