“We’ll have to develop those weapons," President Donald Trump said Saturday. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Foreign Policy Trump: U.S. to withdraw from arms treaty with Russia

President Donald Trump confirmed Saturday that the U.S. would be abandoning a Cold War-era arms treaty, arguing that Russia has defied the terms of the decades-old agreement.

"They have been violating it for many years," Trump said after a rally in Elko, Nev., according to a White House readout, referring to the Kremlin's cooperation with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.


"We're not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we're not allowed to," Trump said.

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev brokered the pact in 1987 to halt the proliferation of nuclear and conventional missiles.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons," Trump said, adding: “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out."

White House national security adviser John Bolton, who departed this weekend for a trip to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, was scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Saturday.