MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/Japan is undermining its recent trust-based relationship with Russia by alleging that Moscow has been violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, dealing a blow to its own reputation as an independent player in the international arena, Head of the Russian Federation Council’s (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev told TASS on Monday.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga earlier said that the country’s government believed that Russia was violating the INF Treaty, so Tokyo comprehends Washington’s motives behind the suspension of its obligations under the accord. According to Suga, "the problems with these missiles bear a direct relation to East Asia," so Japan "in cooperation with the US would like to discuss the issue with the interested countries, including Russia and China."
"By making such statements, Tokyo undermines the trust between our countries, which had begun to emerge recently, dealing another blow to its own reputation as an independent player on the international scene," he said.
Tokyo is making a huge mistake, the senator went on to say. "To persuade China or other countries to join the INF Treaty, it is essential to do everything possible to salvage that landmark deal instead of yielding to US attempts to dismantle the accord, hoping that it will be possible to hit the reset button with a great number of parties later," Kosachev pointed out.
He stressed that the statements by high-ranking Japanese officials were not just "paying tribute to allied obligations to Washington." "It is commonly known that one of the reasons for the US withdrawal from the accord is the absence of other powers possessing such weapons or having the potential for their production among its parties," he stressed, adding that this could be the reason for the latest statements by politicians in Tokyo.
Kosachev also noted that "in line with Western logic, Tokyo is bound to repeat the routine narrative that Russia is to blame for everything."
How the landmark INF deal emerged
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987, entered into force on June 1, 1988. The INF accord 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).
On Friday, US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington was suspending its obligations under the treaty on February 2 and would cease to be a party to the deal in six months’ time, if Russia did not return to compliance with its provisions.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was suspending its participation in the agreement, stressing that Russia should no longer initiate any negotiations on the issue unless Washington is mature enough for an equitable and substantive dialogue.
The US first accused Russia of violating the INF in July 2014. Later on, Washington would repeat these allegations on numerous occasions, with Russia flatly denying them, putting forward counter-claims against Washington’s failure to honor its commitments.