While the Trump administration ignores warnings from nuclear experts and pursues plans to exit the Cold War-era intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty (INF) with Russia, former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev—who initially signed the deal with former President Ronald Reagan—has joined the chorus of voices cautioning that ditching it poses “a dire threat to peace” by increasing the risk of armed conflict.

“I am being asked whether I feel bitter watching the demise of what I worked so hard to achieve. But this is not a personal matter. Much more is at stake.”
—Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev

Since reports emerged last week that President Donald Trump’s warmongering National Security Adviser John Bolton was working within the administration to garner support for dismantling the 1987 treaty, as experts have denounced the move as “stupid and reckless” and a “colossal mistake,” the president and Bolton have doubled down, justifying the looming withdrawal by claiming that Russia is violating the deal by developing the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile.

Reflecting on the landmark agreement, which led to significant reductions in both American and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons, Gorbachev wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday: “I am being asked whether I feel bitter watching the demise of what I worked so hard to achieve. But this is not a personal matter. Much more is at stake. A new arms race has been announced.”

Gorbachev noted that Trump’s decision to withdraw comes as American “military expenditures have soared to astronomical levels and keep rising,” and in the context of the president’s disdain for global cooperation. “There will be no winner in a ‘war of all against all’—particularly if it ends in a nuclear war. And that is a possibility that cannot be ruled out,” the former Soviet leader warned. “An unrelenting arms race, international tensions, hostility, and universal mistrust will only increase the risk.”