EU ‘extremely worried’ about fate of US-Russia nuclear treaty

The EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini says she is “extremely worried” about the fate of a major US-Russia nuclear missile control treaty, warning the security of Europe could be at risk.

Last month, Washington, DC announced it was pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) over Russia’s deployment of a missile system that Western powers say breaches the 1987 accord.

The Kremlin has warned of a new arms race, and as she convened a meeting of EU defense ministers Mogherini expressed concern, calling for talks to save the agreement.

“If we go towards the dismantling of this agreement, Europe’s security is to be put at risk and we do not want to see European territory go back to being a battlefield for other powers as it has been for so long in the past,” she tells reporters.

“We don’t want to go back to those kind of tensions, to that kind of situation and we still hope there is a space for saving the agreement and implementing it,” she said.

While US President Donald Trump’s administration has signaled it will withdraw from the treaty, it has not taken steps to put the decision into practice.

— AFP