Russia To Be Bound By No Obligations If US Withdraws From INF Treaty - Foreign Ministry

Russia will be bound by no obligations within the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty if the United States withdraws from the treaty, as the treaty will stop operating in this event, Vladimir Ermakov, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, told Sputnik on Friday.

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2018) Russia will be bound by no obligations within the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty if the United States withdraws from the treaty, as the treaty will stop operating in this event, Vladimir Ermakov, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, told Sputnik on Friday.

"Washington should assume that if the United States withdraws from the INF, then the treaty will stop operating, and the entire responsibility for breaking one of the mainstays of strategic stability will fall on the United States," Ermakov said.

He specified that this was exactly what Moscow was currently trying to explain to Washington.

Ermakov voiced his hope that the United States would "assess the situation rationally" and not destroy the INF treaty, which is one of the few "positive examples" of real nuclear disarmament.