US may deploy ground launched cruise/ballistic missiles to counter Russian INF treaty violation

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...ra-treaties/article22905194.ece?homepage=true


The Pentagon said it is not surprised by Mr. Putin’s statement and is fully prepared to defend the country.

Congressman Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that for too long presidents of both parties have let all sorts of persistent Russian aggression go unanswered, whether violations of multiple treaties, election meddling, planting fake news stories, or invading sovereign countries.

“It took six years for the Obama administration to even admit that Russia was serious about developing new nuclear weapons or violating the INF treaty despite the urging of this Committee and others. Even with that admission, no action was taken despite the recommendations from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dempsey. That inaction has led to the situation we find ourselves in today,” he said.


“President Putin has confirmed what the U.S. government has known for a long time but that Russia has denied prior to this,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.



The U.S. on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of breaching Cold War-era treaties by developing a new generation of “invincible” weapons and said American military was fully prepared to defend the country.

She said Russia has been developing destabilising weapons systems for over a decade in direct violations of its treaty obligations.

Her comments came hours after President Putin announced that Russia has developed a number of advanced weapons systems, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile, which make all U.S. capabilities aimed at undermining the Russian nuclear deterrent obsolete.

Ms. Sanders said U.S. President Donald Trump understands the threats facing America and its allies in this century and is determined to protect the homeland and preserve peace through strength. “U.S. defense capabilities are, and will, remain second to none,” she told reporters.

“And now, because of the new defence budget of $700 billion, our military will be far stronger than ever. As President’s Nuclear Posture Review made clear, America is moving forward to modernise our nuclear arsenal and ensure our capabilities are unmatched, Ms. Sanders said.

The State Department expressed concern over the Russian video, along with the Putin speech, which targeted the U.S.

“It is certainly concerning to see your government, to see your country, put together that kind of video that shows the Russian Government attacking the US. That’s certainly a concern of ours. I don’t think that that’s very constructive, nor is it responsible,” State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at a separate news conference.

The Pentagon said it is not surprised by Mr. Putin’s statement and is fully prepared to defend the country.

“They know very well that it’s not about them. Our missile defense has never been about them. We need to ensure we have a credible nuclear deterrent, and we are confident that we are prepared to defend this nation no matter what,” Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana White told reporters.

 

[Hindustani78]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/inter...ussia-trump/article25277269.ece?homepage=true

Washington:, October 21, 2018 08:35 IST
Updated: October 21, 2018 11:54 IST


The INF treaty was signed between the then U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his USSR counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.

President Donald Trump has confirmed that the US will pull out of an arms control treaty with Russia dating from the cold war that limited the number of missiles in the two nations, accusing Moscow of violating the deal.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty was one of those agreements and is set to expire in the next two years. The 1987 pact helps protect the security of the US and its allies in Europe and the Far East.

It prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles. It also covers all land-based missiles, including those carrying nuclear warheads.

“We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump told reporters Saturday in Nevada when asked about the reports that his National Security Advisor John Bolton wants the US to pull out of the three-decade-old treaty.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” he said.

The INF treaty was signed between the then US president Ronald Reagan and his USSR counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.

The Pentagon has been supportive of the INF treaty but Defense Secretary James Mattis warned other NATO ministers earlier this month it would no longer be tenable if Russia did not withdraw its Novator ground-based missile, which the US has argued for nearly four years violates the INF range restrictions.

“We are going to terminate the agreement and then we are going to develop the weapons,” unless Russia and China agree to a new deal, the US president said.

“Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years,” Trump said.

He asserted that the US is “not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to .

“We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable,” Trump asserted.

He said the US will not adhere to the agreement, unless others were violating it.

Trump alleged that his predecessor Barack Obama had kept quite on this. I don’t know why president Obama didn’t negotiate or pull out. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to,” he said.

“We’re the ones that have stayed in the agreement and we’ve honoured the agreement.

If they get smart and if others get smart and they say let’s not develop these horrible nuclear weapons, I would be extremely happy with that, but as long as somebody’s violating the agreement, we’re not going to be the only ones to adhere to it,” the US president said.

Russian state news agencies on Saturday cited a foreign ministry source as saying Washington’s move to pull out of the treaty is motivated by a dream of a single global superpower.

“The main motive is a dream of a unipolar world. Will it come true? No,” a foreign ministry source told Ria Novosti state news agency.

The official said that Russia has “many times publicly denounced the US policy course towards dismantling the nuclear deal“.

Washington “has approached this step over the course of many years by deliberately and step-by-step destroying the basis for the agreement,” the official said.

NATO ministers issued a joint statement saying the INF agreement “has been crucial to Euro-Atlantic security and we remain fully committed to the preservation of this landmark arms control treaty”. But they urged Russia to come clean about the capabilities of its new missile.

 

[Super Falcon]

So sad a good work of decades ending usa is a devil it wont stop its devilness time to rejoin against the trio devils of world for permanent peace

 

[Hindustani78]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/inter...r-us-moscow/article25278396.ece?homepage=true
PTI
Moscow, October 21, 2018 14:24 IST
Updated: October 21, 2018 14:24 IST
Will be forced to “undertake retaliatory measures, including involving military technology”, if the U.S. continues to act “clumsily and crudely”, says Russia’s deputy foreign minister

Withdrawing from a Cold War-era nuclear weapons treaty with Russia as President Donald Trump has announced he plans to do is a dangerous step, Russia’s deputy foreign minister warned on Sunday.

“This would be a very dangerous step that, I’m sure, not only will not be comprehended by the international community but will provoke serious condemnation,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS state news agency.

The treaty is “significant for international security and security in the sphere of nuclear arms, for the maintenance of strategic stability,” he stressed.

Russia condemned what he called attempts by the U.S. to gain concessions “through a method of blackmail”, he added.

If the U.S. continues to act “clumsily and crudely” and unilaterally back out of international agreements “then we will have no choice but to undertake retaliatory measures including involving military technology,” Mr. Ryabkov told RIA Novosti news agency.

“But we would not want to get to this stage,” he added.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump announced U.S. plans to leave the three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF, signed in 1987 by the then U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

“We’re the ones who have stayed in the agreement and we’ve honored the agreement, but Russia has not unfortunately honored the agreement, so we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” said Mr. Trump.

But Mr. Ryabkov on Sunday denied Mr. Trump’s accusations, throwing the accusation back at Washington. “We don’t just not violate (the treaty), we observe it in the strictest way,” he insisted.

“And we have shown patience while pointing out over the course of many years the flagrant violations of this treaty by the U.S. itself.”

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton is set to arrive in Moscow on Sunday.

“We hope that we will hear from him during meetings, tomorrow and the day after, more substantively and clearly what the American side intends to undertake,” said Mr. Ryabkov.

Earlier a foreign ministry source told Russian news agencies that the U.S. move was connected to its “dream of a unipolar world”, an argument that Ryabkov also advanced.

“Apparently the existence of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty creates problems for establishing a line of total U.S. domination and supremacy in the military sphere,” he said.

 

[Hindustani78]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/inter...lear-treaty/article25287261.ece?homepage=true
Moscow, October 22, 2018 17:17 IST
Updated: October 22, 2018 17:17 IST
The Kremlin on Monday said the world would be less safe if Washington goes ahead with plans to place intermediate-range missiles.

“Such steps, if taken, will make the world more dangerous,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov as he rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that Russia had violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

“Russia has been and remains committed to the provisions of this treaty,” he said.

The U.S. had previously undermined the foundations of the agreement, Mr. Peskov added.

“The intention to withdraw from this document is of the deepest concern.” Mr. Peskov reiterated an earlier statement by President Vladimir Putin that Russia would never strike first even if threatened with a nuclear attack.

“We don’t feel that we have the right to inflict the first strike,” he said.

The INF resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals.

The treaty was signed by then US president Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who at the weekend also criticised plans to pull out.

U.S. national security advisor John Bolton is in Moscow for two days of talks in which the issue will be discussed.

 

[maximuswarrior]

Well done 'Murica. Bringing war closer to reality.

 

[Oldman1]

Well done 'Murica. Bringing war closer to reality.

You mean well done Russia. This thread was made 3 years ago in response to Russia's violation. So in other words, Trump pulling out recently should not be surprising.

 

[LeGenD]

So sad a good work of decades ending usa is a devil it wont stop its devilness time to rejoin against the trio devils of world for permanent peace

This is narrow-minded remark. Nobody is saint in this world. Russia is just as bad or worse.

Since Russia is guilty of violating a treaty then no point in keeping it.

 

[Hindustani78]

The pact eliminated all short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday that the United States was in close contact with allies about the INF treaty and its implications for the region.

“We are in close collaboration with our allies... and we will continue to collaborate very closely with the treaty and its implications for European security,” Mr. Mattis said in a speech in Bahrain.

“Eventually we have to look reality in the eye, that is not to mean that we are walking away from arms control. But arms control must be more than words on a paper, it must be actions,” Mr. Mattis added.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Oct. 20 that Washington planned to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty which Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, and Ronald Reagan had signed in 1987.

The pact eliminated all short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe.

Washington has cited Russia's alleged violation of the treaty as its reason for leaving it, a charge Moscow denies. Russia in turn accuses Washington of breaking the pact.

Former Soviet Union president Gorbachev has denounced the U.S. decision to leave the INF that helped end the Cold War, saying it would heralded a new arms race which increased the risk of nuclear conflict.

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Russia always had missiles that can hit anywhere in the world. The US doesn't like that? Who cares what the US likes. Russia has every right to defend itself after the mighty France invasion of Russia led by Napoleon and the mighty Germany invasion of Russia led by Hitler.

 

[Oldman1]

Russia always had missiles that can hit anywhere in the world. The US doesn't like that? Who cares what the US likes. Russia has every right to defend itself after the mighty France invasion of Russia led by Napoleon and the mighty Germany invasion of Russia led by Hitler.

Yes the U.S. doesn't like that. To the point which we are pulling out of the treaty, which Russia doesn't like that.