MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty following the United States’ withdrawal from it a year ago has told adversely on global security from the psychological point of view, Chairman of the Board of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s Foundation Andrei Bystritsky told TASS on Sunday.
"From the purely military point of view, the absence of this treaty has had no radical impacts but from the psychological point of view, naturally, it has had a serious impact," he said. "Moreover, the fact that there were a lot of talk that this treaty could be superseded by another one better fitting into the present-day military, technical and political reality continues to be an influencing factor."
According to Bystritsky, no progress has been made towards another agreement to replace the INF Treaty. "It looks like no such agreement will be reached in the near future, the more so, an agreement capable of ensuring comparatively universal involvement of countries which possess such weapons. No serious talks are being conducted on this matter. Generally speaking, it is a sign of certain worsening of the quality of international security."
He noted that chances of involving China in a new treaty, the United States insists on, are very poor. "We see growing strains between the United States and China. Some gleams of positive emerge now and then but the general dynamic is negative. Some even speak about a new cold war, but I don’t think it is proper word," he said. "A treaty on missiles should involve all countries that can have, manufacture or use such weapons, the more so as brand new types of weapons requiring a new approach are developed."
Speaking about possible involvement of the United Kingdom and France into a new agreement, Russia is calling for, Bystritsky noted that such initiatives meet very serious resistance from the elites in the Western countries. "Today, Russia can make a lot of positive steps in this direction, use its influence but this influence is unlikely to yield results without good will from other nations. In this respect, Russia’s authorities are behaving quite consistently and suggest at least something be done to look for possible solutions," he said, adding that it is important to keep in place such formats as Russia’s and the United States’ contacts on strategic stability in Vienna.
On August 2, 2019, the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987. It applied to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometers). The US motivated its actions by Russia’s alleged refusal to comply with the American ultimatum-like demand that the new 9M729 cruise missiles be eliminated as violating the INF Treaty. Moscow vehemently dismissed all accusations, saying that the technical parameters of the 9M729 missiles are within the parameters allowed by the treaty and laid counterclaims to Washington.