Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today issued the following statement after the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty:

"The United States has freed itself from a restrictive treaty that Russia hasn't obeyed for years and China never signed. Our years of naive compliance with the INF Treaty allowed our adversaries to surge ahead in developing their missile forces. Now that America is on equal footing with the rest of the world, we must regain the strategic advantage by building a new generation of ground-launched missiles. Congress can take decisive action to fund, develop, and deploy these systems. Giving our troops these weapons will make America and our allies safe in a way no scrap of paper ever could."