MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Washington has not presented any specific initiatives to Moscow aimed at bringing other countries into the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We have heard the US administration speak about the need to bring other countries into the Treaty. We don’t know if the idea is workable," he said.
"We haven’t received any specific suggestions from our American partners," the Kremlin spokesman pointed out. "In accordance with the president’s course, we no longer plan to put forward any initiatives on the issue because we have done it many times before," Peskov noted.
US President Donald Trump said earlier that the United States was ready to consider an opportunity to negotiate a different agreement to replace the INF Treaty, adding China and some other countries.
INF Treaty issue
The INF Treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987, took effect on June 1, 1988. It applies to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometers). Washington on many occasions accused Russia of violating the Treaty but Moscow strongly dismissed all accusations and expressed grievances concerning Washington’s non-compliance.
On February 1, Trump and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the suspension of Washington’s obligations under the INF Treaty starting February 2. Washington is determined to withdraw from the Treaty in six months unless Russia returns to "real and verifiable" compliance.
On February 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was also suspending the Treaty. He handed down instructions to refrain from initiating talks with Washington on the issue and stressed that the US needed to show readiness for an equal and substantive dialogue.