BRUSSELS, October 22. /TASS/. The European Union has called on the United States to think about impacts of its possible withdrawal from the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty on its own security and the security of its allies and the entire world, as no one in the world wants another arms race, the European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a statement on Monday.
"While we expect the Russian Federation to address serious concerns regarding its compliance with the INF Treaty in a substantial and transparent way, we also expect the United States to consider the consequences of its possible withdrawal from the INF on its own security, on the security of its allies and of the whole world," the statement says. "The world doesn’t need a new arms race that would benefit no one and on the contrary would bring even more instability."
The EEAS noted that the INF Treaty that came into force 30 years ago "contributed to the end of the cold-war and constitutes a pillar of European security architecture."
"Thanks to the INF Treaty, almost three thousand missiles with nuclear and conventional warheads have been removed and verifiably destroyed. The Treaty is also an important contribution to disarmament obligations under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," the statement reads.
"The United States and the Russian Federation need to remain engaged in constructive dialogue to preserve the INF Treaty and ensure its full and verifiable implementation which is crucial for Europe’s and global security," the document underscores.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday, October 20, that Washington would withdraw from the INF Treaty because Russia was violating the terms of the agreement. At the same time, he did not rule out signing a new agreement on intermediate-range nuclear forces with Moscow and Beijing if Russia and China provide guarantees of halting the production of such weapons.
The INF, or The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Treaty was signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987 and entered into force on June 1, 1988. In 1992, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the treaty was multilateralized with the former Soviet republics - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine - as successors. The INF Treaty 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).
The US accused Russia of violating the treaty for the first time in July 2014. Since then, Washington has been repeating its claims on many occasions, while Moscow has been rejecting them and advancing counter-claims concerning the implementation of the treaty by the US side.
