Russia’s Putin urges talks with US to avoid ‘chaos’ and a new arms race
- Moscow and Washington tore up the cold war-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty on Friday
- Putin said if Russia receives information about US development of new missiles, it ‘will be forced to begin the full-scale development of similar missiles’
“In order to avoid chaos that has no rules, limits and laws, one needs to once again weigh all possible dangerous consequences and start serious dialogue without any ambiguities,” Putin said in a statement. “We are ready for it.”
Moscow has blamed Washington for unilaterally ending the 1987 treaty which was signed by US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The agreement limited the use of conventional and nuclear missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometres (310 to 3,400 miles).
Putin said on Monday that if Russia receives information about US development of new missiles, it “will be forced to begin the full-scale development of similar missiles”.
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Russia “will not deploy them in relevant regions until American-made missiles are deployed there,” Putin said.
Unless there are new talks about strategic security, “this scenario means restarting an uncontrolled arms race”, he added.
US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said at the weekend that he would like to deploy the new intermediate-range missiles in Asia, but denied that this would spark an arms race as the weapons are not nuclear.
“Right now, we don’t have plans to build nuclear-tipped INF range weapons,” he said. “So I don’t see an arms race happening.”
Putin on Monday accused the US of “seriously complicating the situation in the world and creating fundamental risks for all” by pulling out of the treaty.
Washington launched a six-month withdrawal procedure for leaving the treaty in February, and Moscow followed soon after.
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The other key arms deal between Russia and the US is the New START treaty which keeps the nuclear arsenals of both countries well below their cold war peak.
The deal expires in 2021 and it is likely not to be renewed amid the current chill in US-Russian relations, experts say.
The US and Russia own more than 90 per cent of global nuclear stockpiles, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank.