Trump adviser saw threat in Russian missiles in Europe
The INF Treaty and Russia's accusations of violating it were one of the topics discussed with the Russian side during the visit of US National Security Advisor John Bolton to Moscow.
John Bolton announced this at a press conference following the visit, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He did not specify the details, but answered questions from journalists. According to him, the issue of violation of the treaty by Russia has been raised by the United States for a long time.
“This is a very important question. President Trump spoke about this on Saturday and yesterday. Our decision relates to those violations that, in our opinion, were carried out by the Russian Federation. We know that the Russian Federation does not adhere to this position and does not agree with our statements. But it is also necessary to understand the context in which this decision was made. This is an issue that was already on the agenda five years ago. And the previous administration talked about violations. In 2015, Obama's assistant secretary of state for arms control, Rose Gottemoeller, said: "Russia has tested, since 2008, ground-launched cruise missiles that can fly to treaty-prohibited distances of between 500 and 5500 km." We are confident that these missiles have been tested and can fly such distances. Russia tried to hide this fact, but we pointed out this fact already in May 2013. Since then, we have been arguing about this issue.
Every year the State Department publishes the so-called. implementation reports and, starting in 2013, for six years in a row they indicated Russia’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the treaty,” he said.
John Bolton noted that the agreement does not address the problem of the presence of SMD missiles in countries such as China and North Korea.
“Half of China’s arsenal is a violation of the INF Treaty,” he said.
Journalists also asked whether a possible US withdrawal from the treaty would become a reason for the deployment of American offensive missiles in Europe, but John Bolton did not give a direct answer to this question, accusing Russia of deploying its missiles in Europe.
“Russian missiles are already in Europe. The threat is not the US withdrawal from this treaty, but the presence of Russian missiles on European territory,” he said.
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