Nato chief to meet Russian foreign minister to save arms control treaty
BRUSSELS/WARSAW:Nato secretarygeneral Jens Stoltenberg announced on Wednesday that he will hold talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov this week, as part of efforts to save a key arms control treaty that is on the point of collapse.
The pair will meet at the Munich Security Conference, which starts on Friday, as Nato tries to persuade Moscow to abandon a new missile system the alliance says breaches the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
The US began the process of exiting the treaty earlier this month in response to Moscow’s deployment of the 9M729 missile, prompting Russia to announce its own withdrawal.
“I expect to meet minister Lavrov in Munich, and I think it is important to have dialogue with Russia especially when we face so many difficult issues as we face today,” Stoltenberg said as he arrived for a meeting of Nato defence ministers.
The US withdrawal will only take effect in August, giving a sixmonth window to save the treaty, but few expect this to happen and Stoltenberg said Nato was already planning for a “future without the INF Treaty and with more missiles”.
The future of the INF treaty and what steps Nato will take to bolster its defence against new Russian medium-range missiles - are top of the agenda for the defence ministers’ two-day meeting.
The collapse of the 1987 treaty, which banned missiles with a range of 500km to 5,500km, has sparked fears of a new arms race in Europe. But Stoltenberg said Nato had no intention of deploying new nuclear weapons systems in Europe.
US TO SEND MORE TROOPS TO POLAND
The US plans to expand its troop presence in Poland beyond the current 4,000-strong contingent deployed to counter a resurgent Russia, Washington’s ambassador to Warsaw, Georgette Mosbacher, said on Wednesday ahead of a security conference.