Russia’s Leader Vladimir Putin said about a dozen countries were now producing mid-range missiles of the type banned by the INF treaty. NATO said it was now “up to Russia” to save the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF). Here's the full story.
“The problem is the deployment of new Russian missiles. There are no new U.S. missiles in Europe, but there are more Russian missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and those missiles put the INF treaty in jeopardy,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.Here's the full story.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Norman Mattis: “We are in close collaboration with our European allies… and we will continue to collaborate very closely with the treaty and its implications for European security. Eventually we have to look reality in the eye, that is not to mean that we are walking away from arms control. But arms control must be more than words on a paper, it must be actions.”Here's the full story.
“Under no circumstances should we tear up old disarmament agreements. … Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?,” Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said to Interfax news agency.Here's the full story.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, required elimination of short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles by both countries.
“Russia has not, unfortunately, honoured the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump said.Here's the full story.
“We have to try to do what we can to prevent these types of states from presiding over international bodies.” – Robert Wood, U.S. disarmament ambassador, told reporters after leaving the session in Geneva said.