Trump's plan to quit arms treaty a mistake, says Gorbachev

“Under no circumstances should we tear up old disarmament agreements,” Gorbachev said.

US President Ronald Reagan with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during a meeting on October 11, 1986.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a co-signatory of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, said on Sunday U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to quit the treaty was a mistake, Interfax news agency reported.

“Under no circumstances should we tear up old disarmament agreements. ... Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?,” the news agency quoted Mr. Gorbachev as saying.

“Quitting the INF is a mistake.”

Mr. Trump confirmed on Saturday that the United States plans to leave the three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF.

Mr. Gorbachev warned that Mr. Trump's move would “undermine all the efforts put in by the Soviet leadership and by the US itself to reach nuclear disarmament.”