‘PRESERVE NUCLEAR TREATY, U.S. URGED
EU says INF treaty a cornerstone of European defence
THE European Commission yesterday urged the United States and Russia to pursue talks to preserve a nuclear weapons treaty after President Donald Trump said Washington was withdrawing from the deal.
The Commission, the 28-nation European Union executive, stressed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) as a cornerstone of European defence for the last three decades.
“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,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.
She said the treaty was important for both European and global security.
“The treaty for IntermediateRange Forces in Europe contributed to the end of the Cold War, to the end of the nuclear arms race and is one of the cornerstones of European security architecture since it entered force 30 years ago,” she added.
“And thanks to this treaty, almost 3,000 missiles with nuclear and conventional warheads have been removed and verifiably destroyed,” Kocijancic said.
“It is also an important contribution to disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” she said.
The treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles was signed in 1987 by then US president Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader.
Gorbachev on Sunday said that “dropping these agreements... shows a lack of wisdom” and was a “mistake”.
The Trump administration has complained of Moscow’s deployment of Novator 9M729 missiles, which Washington says fall under the treaty’s ban on missiles that can travel distances of between 500km and 5,500km.
When asked if the EU share its US ally’s position that Russia should be blamed for the lapse of the treaty, Kocijancic renewed the call for dialogue.
“We of course expect the Russian federation to address the concerns regarding its compliance with the treaty in a substantial and transparent way,” she said.
Meanwhile, White House national security adviser John Bolton arrived in Moscow on Sunday and began two days of meetings with senior Russian officials.
Today, he may speak about the treaty with President Vladimir Putin, according to Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said the Russian leader was looking for “clarifications” about US intentions.