MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. Russia includes in its military planning the potential deployment of US missiles, banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), to Japan, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said in an interview with TASS.

"We are aware of this, take this into account in our military planning. And if these missiles are deployed - while so far these are just plans and ideas - there will be a response, like the president said," he said, replying to a question on the matter.

Christine Wormuth, the US Secretary of the Army, said earlier that the US side is interested in deploying ground-based intermediate-range missiles in Japan. Such missiles are banned by the INF Treaty, which Washington withdrew from in 2019.

The United States deployed an intermediate-range missile system in the north of the Philippines during joint drills in the spring. Beijing strongly condemned this step.

The INF Treaty was signed by the former Soviet Union and the United States in December 1987. It banned the deployment of ground-based and cruise missiles with a range from 500 to 5,500 kilometers. However, the United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019. Despite this, Moscow pledged not to manufacture and deploy such missiles as long as Washington refrains from doing this in any part of the world. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow remains committed to this moratorium.