US Nato envoy warns Russia

Brussels, Oct. 3: The US envoy to NATO on Tuesday said that Russia must halt development of new missiles that could carry nuclear warheads and warned that the US would be looking at its capability to “take out” the system if it becomes operational.

Nato fears the 9M729 system contravenes the 1987 I n t e r mediat e - r a n g e Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF. The Cold War- era pact bans an entire class of weapons — all land- based cruise missiles with a range between 500- 5,500 km, and the alliance says that the Russian system fits into that category.

“It is time now for Russia to come to the table and stop the violations,” US Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison told reporters in Brussels, on the eve of a meeting between US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and his Nato counterparts.

She said that if the system “became capable of delivering,” the US “would then be looking at the capability to take out a missile that could hit any of our countries in Europe and hit America.”

Hutchinson later clarified her position in a tweet in which she said she was not talking about preemptively striking Russia. Rather, she said in the tweet that her point was: Russia “needs to return to INF Treaty compliance or we will need to match its capabilities to protect US & Nato interests.” Washington has shared intelligence evidence with its 28 Nato allies that Russia is developing the ground- fired cruise missile.