World10:34 14.12.2018(updated 10:49 14.12.2018) Get short URL180
Previously, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington would suspend participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty if Russia “didn’t return to full compliance”. Moscow, for its part, has denied claims regarding violations of the treaty, adding that the US was creating a pretext to withdraw from the accord.
“Washington should proceed from the fact that if the United States withdraws from the INF Treaty, then this agreement ceases to function and all responsibility for scrapping one of the foundations of strategic stability falls on the United States”, Director of the Foreign Ministry Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Vladimir Ermakov.
He noted that Washington had decided to leave the treaty in the early 2000s after the US had abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 between the Soviet Union and the United States. The agreement obligated the parties to destroy their ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles whose ranges are between 500 and 5,500 kilometres (from 311 to 3,317 miles).
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Sourse: sputniknews.com
