US officially announces time to withdraw from INF Treaty with Russia
Focus Online newspaper reported that the US has officially announced that it will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on February 2.
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| Iskander ballistic missile system at the Army 2015 International Military Technical Forum in Kubinka, Moscow suburbs, Russia on June 17, 2015. (Photo: REUTERS/ VNA) |
According to the official, the discussion with Russian officials to maintain the INF was "disappointing" and said that Russia continued to violate the basic points in the INF, while Moscow also did not clarify how it would adjust this treaty in the future.
The information was released just one day after negotiations between Russian and US delegations to salvage the INF, held in Geneva, Switzerland, broke down as the two sides continued to criticize each other.
Russian news agencies quoted the country's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, as emphasizing: "The responsibility for this lies entirely with the United States."
Deputy Minister Ryabkov, the head of the Russian delegation, said the two sides had failed to agree on any issues and Washington appeared to have no intention of holding further talks.
Also on January 16, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is ready to continue efforts to save the INF. This was the statement Mr. Lavrov made at a major press conference on the results of Russia's diplomatic activities in 2018.
Mr. Lavrov expressed hope that European countries, which want to save the INF Treaty more than anyone else, will also make efforts not to follow the US, not to make statements within NATO blaming Russia, but to find ways to persuade the US to take a more responsible stance.
The Russian Foreign Minister said that the consultations in Geneva on the INF Treaty between Russia and the United States on January 15 demonstrated the US’s tendency to undermine the instruments of strategic stability. All this aggravates the lack of mutual trust, leading to the militarization of foreign policy thinking.
However, Mr. Lavrov said Moscow hopes that Washington has no plans to withdraw from the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-3). He emphasized that Russia has done a lot to remove obstacles in START because Moscow wants to extend this treaty./.
