UK Defense Secretary Says London To Support Trump's Decision To Pull Out Of INF Treaty

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2018) The United Kingdom will support Washington's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia and send a clear message to Moscow over its alleged violations of the agreement, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Sunday.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington was going to pull out of the INF treaty, accusing Russia of violating it.

"Our close and long-term ally of course is the United States and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty obligation that it signed," Williamson was quoted as saying by The Financial Times newspaper.

Williamson noted, however, that London did not want the US-Russia treaty to be terminated but stressed that Moscow was unilaterally violating the accord.

"We of course want to see this treaty continue to stand but it does require two parties to be committed to it and at the moment you have one party that is ignoring it. It is Russia that is in breach and it is Russia that needs to get its house in order," the defense secretary added.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said earlier on Sunday that the United States had no reasons to accuse Russia of violating the agreement, adding that the withdrawal from the agreement benefited certain political forces in Washington that wanted to continue to violate the INF treaty.

In recent years, the United States and Russia have been accusing each other of violating the agreement. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it respected the treaty.

The INF Treaty, a major arms control agreement, was signed by former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and then-US President Ronald Reagan back in 1987, when the Cold War between the two nations was still ongoing. The two sides agreed to destroy all cruise or ground-launched ballistic missiles that have ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,400 miles).

Moscow and Washington decided that the treaty would have an unlimited duration and each side could terminate it by providing compelling evidence substantiating its decision.