Under international law, a “treaty” is defined as a legally-binding agreement between nations.
The Budapest Memorandum contains no means of enforcement, no means of making the signatories comply, and no means of levying penalties in the event of violations.
Furthermore, as far as America specifically is concerned, a treaty is only legally-binding if two-thirds of the Senate concurs, per the US Constitution.
Since the Memorandum was never ratified by the US Senate, it is not, legally speaking, a “treaty.”
So here is where you called it out as “not a treaty”. The Ukes will have learned that by now. America is not to be trusted.
I get the sense the Israelis have known this for a long time.
I know Saddam figured it out, too late. He checked in with George W, promptly invaded Kuwait, and found out we could not be trusted.
The Ukes had about a third of Russia’s nukes. It seems very likely they’ll be building upon their learnings about “not treaties” and building their own Nukes as fast as the A-Bomb kid designed his. That’s what I’d be doing in their shoes.
But by all means, we shouldn’t be calling it a “treaty”. Someone might get upset.
That there “non-treaty” was never binding, so if the Ukes kept some Nukes, they never would have violated that “non-treaty” in the first place. Sumthin to keep in mind.
But by all means, we shouldn’t be calling that a treaty.