Washington: Russia has violated arms treaty by testing cruise missile: US
[ updated 29 Jul 2014, 13:10:38]Courtesy: IE
The finding comes in a 2014 report that concluded Russia was in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which barred it from possessing, producing or flight-testing such cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres, the official told AFP.
US President Barack Obama has sent a
letter to his counterpart Vladimir Putin on the subject, which the
administration official described as “a very serious matter which we
have attempted to address with Russia for some time now.”
Washington was prepared to discuss its
determination with Moscow “immediately” in senior-level bilateral talks,
the official added late yesterday, saying Congress and US allies have
been kept abreast of the matter.
“The United States is committed to the
viability of the INF Treaty,” the official said. “We encourage Russia to
return to compliance with its obligations under the treaty and to
eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner.”
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty (INF), signed by then US president Ronald Reagan and his Russian
counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev, eliminated nuclear and conventional
intermediate range ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles.
The announcement of the determination,
first reported by The New York Times, comes as a time of heightened
tensions between Washington and the Kremlin over Ukraine.
The official said the INF treaty served
the “mutual interests of the parties” – not only the United States and
Russia but also 11 other successor states of the Soviet Union.
“Moreover, this treaty contributes to the
security of our allies and to regional security in Europe and in the Far
East,” the official added.
In January, State Department spokeswoman
Jen Psaki said Washington had raised concerns with Moscow following a
Times report that it had begun testing a new ground-launched cruise
missile as early as 2008, and that the State Department’s senior arms
control official had repeatedly raised the issue with Moscow since May
2013.
Psaki said at the time she could not
refute the details of the Times report, and that there was an ongoing
interagency review to determine whether the Russians had violated the
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Britain
is to send more than 1,300 British troops to eastern Europe as a show
of strength against Russia's annexation of Crimea and 'destabilisation'
of eastern Ukraine.
Defence
Secretary Michael Fallon announced the details of Exercise Black Eagle
in Poland, as EU member states prepare to impose tough sanctions on
Russia's financial, defence and the hi-tech energy sectors.
David
Cameron warned Britain must accept some economic ‘pain’ from the
crackdown, as it emerged tomorrow he will meet families of the 10
Britons killed when Malyasian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over
eastern Ukraine.