Nato accuses Russia of violating INF

Treaty of 1987 has no value if not respected

NATO and Russia failed yesterday to resolve a dispute over a new Russian missile that Western allies say is a threat to Europe, bringing closer Washington’s withdrawal from a landmark arms control treaty.

At a meeting of the Nato-Russia Council in Brussels, envoys from Nato’s 29 members renewed their call on Moscow’s top diplomat to the alliance to destroy a nuclear-capable cruise missile system before a February2 deadline.

Without a breakthrough, the US is set to start the six-month process of pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, having notified it would do so in early December and accusing Moscow of breaching it. Russia denies it.

“The treaty is in jeopardy,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said. “The sooner Russia comes back into compliance, the better. The treaty has no value if it is not respected, the problem is Russian missiles in Europe.”

Stoltenberg said Russia had shown no willingness to compromise. But he and some European nations held out hope for diplomatic progress during the six-month withdrawal process.

Russia, the US, France, Britain and China are due to meet in Beijing on January 30 to discuss arms control. It was not clear if the INF treaty would be on the agenda.

Russia stands accused of developing land-based, intermediate-range cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and hitting European cities at short notice, breaching the Cold War-era pact that took such rockets out of Europe.

In another development, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday called on the US to drop what it called irresponsible plans to deploy a missile defence system in space, saying the move risked fuelling an arms race.

The ministry said the plans looked like an attempt to resurrect the so-called Star Wars programme or US Strategic Defence Initiative which was first announced in the 1980s by then US president Ronald Reagan.

Moscow said it was “deeply concerned” by the US plans which it interpreted as confirmation that Washington intended to use space for military purposes in the future. |

SWEDISH environmental activist Greta Thunberg, 16, takes part in a debate on climate change during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, as the forum drew to a close with an outlook of current economic developments. CNN reported that while many delegates arrived in their private jets, Thunberg took a 32-hour train from her home to Davos. She’s also camped out, trading a luxury hotel stay for a tent in freezing temperatures. “Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we all have created. But that is just another convenient lie,” the Swedish teen says in a video posted to Twitter. |