DAVOS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2019) Both Russia and the United States are guilty of the current crisis around the INF Treaty, and the agreement is unlikely to be ever saved, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger told Sputnik on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"This is a bilateral treaty, so both parties to this treaty have responsibilities. I am not happy with the US way of dealing with this issue, but I am also not happy with the Russian way, because I think Russia could have responded to accusations from the United States of violations of the agreement in a much more strong, credible and transparent manner, much earlier," Ischinger said.
Ischinger expressed serious doubts that the INF Treaty could be saved and expressed concern about that.
"it's a terrible setback from arms control ... Arms control is one of the building blocks of the reliable European security architecture. I am very concerned," he said.
According to Ischinger, both Russia and the United States have failed to do all in their power to avoid the current crisis.
"I think Russia has not been able to completely eliminate the suspicion that they have built a weapon which is not in line with the treaty. Russia has not done everything that they could have done. I also believe that the Americans have also not done everything that they should have done. I am personally unhappy with both sides. I don't know who carries more responsibility," the MSC chairman stressed.
In October, US President Donald Trump announced his country's intention to withdraw from the INF Treaty over alleged Russian violations of the agreement. On December 4, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Russia had 60 days to start to comply with the agreement, or, otherwise, the United States could leave the treaty on February 2. The Russian authorities, in turn, have many times stressed that their country strictly complied with the obligations outlined in the treaty.
The United States has in particular repeatedly voiced concern over Russia's 9M729 missile, which, according to Washington, violates the provisions of the nuclear treaty. Moscow has refuted US accusations as unsubstantiated, insisting that the missile was tested at the range permitted by the agreement.
Russia, in turn, has complained that launchers on US defense systems in Europe are capable of firing cruise missiles at ranges that are banned by the agreement.
The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 by then leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and then US President Ronald Reagan. The leaders agreed to destroy all cruise or ground-launched ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,400 miles).
