A Potential U.S.-Russia Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Navalny Affair

Sept. 6, 2020 (EIRNS)— “Trump Refuses To Condemn Russia over Poisoning,” BBC headlined its wire yesterday complaining about President Donald Trump’s audacity in insisting that the U.S. would review NATO and Germany’s “proof beyond doubt” that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, in order to reach its own assessment.

The White House transcript of Trump’s remarks in his Friday evening press conference makes clear why the British are so-hysterical. In answering several questions about the alleged Navalny poisoning, Trump insisted on the importance of the non-proliferation treaty he is working on with Putin, and the potential to achieve it:

“With Russia, we’re right now negotiating a nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which is very important. It’s a very important thing. To me, it’s the most important thing. Some people say ‘global warming;’ I don’t. I say this is far more important. And we are the biggest; they are the second biggest, nuclear-wise. China is third. They’re actually a distant third, but they’re building pretty rapidly. And at some point, we’ll include China into those talks, but we’re doing very well with Russia on nuclear nonproliferation.”

And again a bit later, after again reviewing how tough he had been on Russia:

“... With that being said, if we can do a nuclear nonproliferation agreement, that would be a great thing,” and in the next sentence, referencing the Russia poisoned Navalny charge, “but I would not be at all happy if that were the case. And it looks like it might very well be the case. I mean, based on what Germany —”

He couched these answers in similar terms to the theme he had returned to in his Pennsylvania rally on Thursday: I’m tough, but

“I get along with almost all countries. I get along with North Korea. Remember? We were supposed to be going to war with North Korea. If Hillary got elected, you’d be at war right now with North Korea. That would be a very messy war, a very bad war. Many millions of people would be killed....

“We’re doing very well in Afghanistan, bringing the troops down—very low level—and other things are happening very interestingly. We have a great peace deal going on in the Middle East, actually, with U.A.E. and Israel....”

The exception to the “all countries” continues, unfortunately, to be China:

“The fact that I get along with Russia and that I get along, frankly, with everybody—right now. I’m not getting along with China, but that’s my choice. I don’t like what happened with respect to the pandemic, with respect to the China virus. I don’t like it at all. What they’ve done to this world and this country and Europe and everyplace else is terrible. But I do get along ... with President Putin.”

He told the press they should be asking more about China, “doing much worse things” than Russia.