Contributed from Queensland

American president Donald Trump is dead set in his intention to increase global tensions. His latest move, is to announce that the United States is pulling out of nuclear agreements with Russia.

Under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, both countries have been supposed to pull back form aiming fire power against each other. But what has really happened on the ground?

“Russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” says Trump.

The excuse is that Russia has broken the deal to eliminate land based short-range missiles and intermediate range nuclear and conventional missiles by both countries.

Russia has consistently denied that it is guiclty of any breach, and no evidence has been presented to show otherwise.

The United States however, has been busy building a missile shield around Russia, and this has been continued under the Trump administration.

It seems what Russia has done, is to bring in launchers to within reach of the of the missile shield, which may or may not have the capacity to launch nuclear missiles. Careful negotiations are needed to prevent any escalation. This entails removal of the threatening missile shield. The militarisation of the territory bordering Russia is not what the world needs.

Moscow is now saying that if the walkout goes ahead, it will retaliate with its own measures.

Donald Trump has also used the opportunity to have another tilt at China. He said that if China developed weapons of the same kind, there will still be a walkout, no matter what Russia does.

At present, Russia is seeking further talks. China has not responded so far. Tensions are already high, with the shift to the imposition of trade sanctions.

The problem is that Washington is acting like an old style colonial power, trying to impose its supremacy in word affairs, by means of gunboat diplomacy. This is unacceptable to Russia and China. They are too formidable and will not bow down. Germany led Europe is not happy. Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas said the pull out “would be a very dangerous step.”  “We now urge the United States to consider the possible consequences,” he added.

The world has no choice but to apply pressure to ensure an end to gunboat diplomacy. The consequences of it escalating out of control and into a shooting war would be horrific and would most likely lead to global confrontation.

This is something worth avoiding. The way to do it is to remove the threat.