Russia keen to save key arms treaty
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was ready to work with Washington to save a key arms control treaty and called on Europe for support.
Moscow’s top diplomat spoke after talks between the US and Russia in Geneva to salvage the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty went nowhere. “We are still ready to work to save the INF,” Lavrov said, calling on European nations to influence Washington, saying they had a stake in the issue and should not be “at the tail-end of the US position”.
Last month the US said it would withdraw from the INF in 60 days if Russia did not dismantle missiles the US claims breach the deal. Russia denies it violated the pact, which forbids ground-launched short- and intermediate-range missiles.
On Tuesday, US and Russian diplomats blamed each other for pushing the agreement to the brink of collapse. Russians said Americans had confirmed Washington’s intention to exit the treaty from February 2.
Lavrov slammed the intent and hoped it was still possible to save another key arms control agreement, the New START, which expires in 2021.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to develop nuclear missiles banned under the INF treaty if it is scrapped.
Putin said if Washington moved to place more missiles in Europe after ditching the deal, any European countries agreeing to host US missiles would be at risk of a Russian attack.
Signed in 1987 by then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the treaty bans groundlaunched missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500km. The deal resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals. —