MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Moscow is ready for dialogue with Washington on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) on an equal basis as it thinks it is still possible to prevent the United States’ withdrawal from it, Russia’s Permanent Representative to Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said on Monday.
He noted that the Americans are seeking to have a free hand to use those types of weapons that are prohibited by that treaty "to push its interests in various parts of the world." "Can we stop a negative scenario? Well, as long as withdrawal has not taken place, we do have chances," he noted. "Our country is ready for talks on that matter, but only on an equal basis but not because of blackmailing and ultimatums."
"We have a number of questions and claims to the Americans and they have been failing to answer them as of yet," Ulyanov said, adding that Washington’s 60-day ultimatum looks "strange from the professional point of view."
Situation around INF Treaty
The INF, or The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Treaty was signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987 and entered into force on June 1, 1988. In 1992, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the treaty was multilateralized with the former Soviet republics - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine - as successors. The INF Treaty covered deployed and non-deployed ground-based short-range missiles (from 500 to 1,000 kilometers) and intermediate-range missiles (from 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers).
The US accused Russia of violating the treaty for the first time in July 2014. Since then, Washington has been repeating its claims on many occasions, while Moscow has been rejecting them and advancing counter-claims concerning the implementation of the treaty by the US side.
US President Donald Trump said on October 20 that Washington would withdraw from the INF Treaty because Russia was violating the terms of the agreement. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov described this decision as a dangerous step. Washington’s decision came under criticism from Berlin and Beijing. However London expressed support to the US’ stance and NATO placed responsibility for Trump’s decision on Russia which, it claims, may violate the treaty.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said after a NATO ministerial meeting on December 4 that his country would stop fulfilling its liabilities under the INF Treaty unless Russia returned to "full and verifiable" compliance with it within 60 days.