WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2021) US President Joe Biden should counter Russia's proposal to prohibit deploying to Europe missiles formerly banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball told Sputnik on Wednesday.
In a joint statement after their talks in Geneva earlier in the day, Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to launch a bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue in the near future to lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures.
"In the absence of the INF Treaty, the risk of a new nuclear missile race in Europe will grow," Kimball said. "Biden, in coordination with NATO, should counter Russia's 2020 proposal for a verifiable moratorium on the deployment in Europe of missiles formerly banned by the INF Treaty. Although imperfect, the Russian proposal is a starting point."
Kimball also said another option would be to verifiably ban nuclear-armed ground-launched and sea-launched cruise and ballistic missiles.
