One side has not been adhering to it,

we have but one side hasn't.

Signed in 1987, between Russia and America,

the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

otherwise known as the INF contributed to the beginning

of the end of the Cold War.

For more than a decade, Russia has been cheating the terms

of the deal.

But what would be the death of the nuclear pact mean

for world peace.

In 1987, after the years of the negotiation

the super powers agreed to meet.

Today, I for the United States and the General Secretary

for the Soviet Union have signed the first agreement ever

to eliminate an entire class of US

and Soviet nuclear weapons.

We have made history.

Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev agreed to destroy

and never again produce land based missiles with a range

of 500 to 5,500 miles.

Some politicians and journalists

are already speculating as to who has won.

I reject this approach.

It is a throwback to old thinking.

At the time The Economist reported

that the world has crossed the Rubicon

of nuclear disarmament

but warned that the west should trend carefully

because westen public opinion may be lulled

into thinking that Russia is no longer an adversary.

In the Department of Defense, we've viewed Gorbachev

as someone we could do business with.

He was looking to the future and understood

it could not be based on confrontation with the west.

Frank Miller spent 30 years working

for the US government on national security

and negotiated nuclear deals with the Russians.

This is what the INF Treaty was all about.

But 30 years after the landmark treaty,

both sites blame the other for breaking the agreement.

In 1987 we were looking to work together

and there was a spirit of cooperation.

There is now a spirit

of confrontation emanating from Moscow.

Putin is using his intelligence services

in his cyber services to try to disrupt events

in the west and today the Russians actually believe

that nuclear weapons are useful weapons of war

and certainly they use them all the time as weapons

of coercion and intimidation.

Over the past decade, Russia has been testing

and deploying missiles that break the deal.

The Russians say that it is America

that's broken he treaty,

claiming NATO's defense shield in Romania and Poland

has the capacity

to fire intermediate-range missiles into Russia.

Relations between the United States and Russia now

are poor and are getting worse.

We need to make clear to Mr. Putin that aggression

against the United States is not a policy goal

he can pursue.

Both sides have six months to negotiate

before the deal is disbanded.

But if the treaty collapses,

the consequences could be severe.

Other countries who are not signatories to the INF

including China, India, and Israel

have been stockpiling missiles.

The US and Russia may look to catch up,

sparking an arms race that could jeopardize what is left

of global arms control.

Most worryingly, the potential death of the INF

has called into question the new start treaty,

a pact between Russia and America that deals

with long range nuclear missiles.

If this is not agreed,

there would be no constraint on the nuclear forces

of America and Russia for the first time

in almost 50 years.