NATO, Russia fail to agree over missile breach, U.S. to quit treaty

[TomCADem]

Source: Reuters

BRUSSELS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - NATO and Russia failed on Friday to resolve a dispute over a new Russian missile that Western allies say is a threat to Europe, bringing closer Washington’s withdrawal from a landmark arms control treaty.

At a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels, envoys from NATO’s 29 members renewed their call on Moscow’s deputy foreign minister to destroy a nuclear-capable cruise missile system before a Feb. 2 deadline.

Without a breakthrough, the United States is set to start the six-month process of pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), having notified it would do so in early December and accusing Moscow of breaching it.

Russia denies violating the terms of the treaty, which eliminated the medium-range missile arsenals of the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclear/nato-russia-fail-to-agree-over-missile-breach-us-to-quit-treaty-idUSKCN1PJ14N

[pecosbob]

1. I absolutely hate the fact that I am about ready to call for a new version of the Pershing

I am certainly in favor of making available any and all resources to NATO members that wish it as soon as possible to counter Russian expansionism in all it's forms.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Trump has only one negotiating style: hyuge ask & then stonewall unless he gets most of it.

But ... it failed in the shutdown fiasco. No surprise. He's not really a negotiator and has no artfulness about his attempts at deals.

[AJT]

3. That's what Puttie wants, now he will be able to grow his arsenal with abandon.

without the US interfering.

[The Truth Is Here]

4. Uh, the House might object to the U.S. quitting the treaty

so I'm thinking that the treaty is sustained.

[Voltaire2]

5. I don't think congress has any say on that.

They have to ratify a treaty for it to be valid, but the executive branch can rip them up as they see fit. It is probably not what the authors of the constitution had in mind, but it seems to the current state of executive authority.

[bdamomma]

6. This will

be Putin's final and glorious act and our final act for our country.

[EX500rider]

7. If Russia has violated the treaty (according to the Europeans also)...

.....what's the point of the US keeping in the treaty? Plus the Chinese are not signers.

The US accused Russia of violating treaty terms by testing the SSC-8 cruise missile in 2008. The accusation was brought up again in 2014 and 2017. In 2013, reports came out that Russia had tested and planned to continue testing two missiles in ways that could violate the terms of the treaty: the SS-25 road mobile intercontinental ballistic missile and the newer RS-26 ICBM..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty#Alleged_violations