NATO Secretary General gives Russia last chance to comply with Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed his hope that Russia will return to complying with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Stoltenberg said in an interview with the German dpa agency.
“The important thing is that Russia now has a last chance. If Russia does not come back into compliance, well, then we have a big problem,” said the secretary general of the alliance.
“There are no new US missiles in Europe, but there are new Russian missiles, and that's what puts the treaty into jeopardy. The SSC-8 missile is mobile, hard to detect, nuclear capable, reduces the warning time and could reach European cities. And by doing so, Russia reduces the threshold for use of nuclear weapons,” Stoltenberg explained.
NATO Secretary General said that “there are many potential ways NATO can respond”, but he did not disclose any details.
“So what we need now is a careful assessment of the consequences, an analysis of the different options, [...] and then an agreed NATO response,” Stoltenberg said.
In early December last year, Stoltenberg declared that the NATO should be prepared to live without the INF Treaty.
At the end of 2018, the United States handed over to NATO partners evidence of the violation of the INF Treaty by Russia. Earlier, US President Donald Trump spoke about his intention to withdraw from the INF Treaty. Trump explained his intention by the fact that Russia allegedly violates the provisions of the treaty.