MOSCOW/WASHINGTON — US National Security Adviser John Bolton met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday during a visit to Moscow, after President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw from a nuclear arms treaty.

“Today, there are a large number of problems in the world that we could solve through joint efforts,” Shoigu said in comments carried by the RIA Novosti agency.

He mentioned “strategic questions linked to nuclear deterrence as well as to the solution of major, long-running conflicts.”

The minister said the first summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin this summer had shown ties between the two countries were gradually being reestablished.

Bolton for his part said he had been sent to Moscow with the task of “deepening and strengthening” dialogue with Russia, in comments translated into Russian.

Bolton was expected to meet with Putin later on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Trump said on Monday the United States is ready to build up its nuclear arsenal after announcing it is abandoning a Cold War-era nuclear treaty, as Russia warned the withdrawal could cripple global security.

Trump sparked concern globally at the weekend by saying he wanted to jettison the three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed former US president Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader.

In explaining his decision, Trump told reporters in Washington that Russia had “not adhered to the spirit of that agreement or to the agreement itself.”

“Until people come to their senses, we will build it up,” he said, referring to America’s nuclear stockpile. “This should have been done years ago.”

“It’s a threat to whoever you want. And it includes China. And it includes Russia,” the US president continued. “And it includes anybody else who wants to play that game. You can’t do that. You can’t play that game.”

“Until they get smart, there’s going to be nobody that’s going to be even close to us.”

Russia, however, has warned that abandoning the agreement would be a major blow to global security.

Signed in 1987, the INF resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals.

On Monday, Bolton discussed the fate of the treaty with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and spent “nearly five hours” in talks with Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, a spokesman for the council said.

Speaking after his meeting with Patrushev, Bolton said the Russians had insisted that Moscow did not violate the treaty.

“The position was very firmly announced by Russia that they did not believe that they were breaching the INF treaty. In fact they said: ‘You are breaching the INF treaty,’“ Bolton said in an interview with Kommersant, a Russian broadsheet.

“You can’t bring somebody into compliance who does not think they are in breach,” he said, adding the treaty seems to have run its course.

The two men also discussed a possible extension by five years of the New START arms control treaty, which expires in 2021, the Security Council said.

Bolton told Kommersant that Washington wanted to “resolve the INF issue first.”

Trump’s announcement has raised global concerns, with the European Commission urging the United States and Russia to pursue talks to preserve the treaty and China calling on Washington to “think twice.”

“The US and the Russian Federation need to remain in a constructive dialogue to preserve this treaty and ensure it is fully and verifiably implemented,” said Maja Kocijancic, the EU spokeswoman for foreign affairs and security policy.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said a unilateral withdrawal from the treaty “will have a multitude of negative effects.” — AFP