NATO chief calls arms buildup unlikely, Putin warns Europe

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo / AP

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that while allies blame Russia for violating an important Cold War-era missile treaty he does not expect them to deploy more nuclear warheads in Europe in response.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin followed up on United States President Donald Trump's declared intention to pull out of the 1987 arms control pact by warning that if the US deploys the now-banned missiles in Europe, Russia would target the nations hosting them.

The European Union has described the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as a cornerstone of European security and urged Russia and the US to uphold it. But Stoltenberg did not encourage the US, the biggest and most influential member of Nato, to stay in the treaty.

"I don't foresee that allies will deploy more nuclear weapons in Europe as a response to the new Russian missile," Stoltenberg told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels. However, he noted that the 29 allies were assessing "the implications of the new Russian missile for our security".

Putin said he hoped the US did not plan to put the kind of missiles the treaty banned in Europe, if it does withdraw from the pact.

"If they are deployed in Europe, we will naturally have to respond in kind," Putin said at a news conference after talks with visiting Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. "The European nations that would agree to that should understand that they would expose their territory to the threat of a possible retaliatory strike."

The Russian leader strongly rejected US and Nato allegations that Moscow has violated the treaty. He charged it was the US that had violated the pact with missile defence facilities in Romania that could be used to hold cruise missiles in violation of the INF.

With tensions over the treaty's possible unravelling mounting, Nato yesterday officially launched its Trident Juncture war games in Norway, its biggest manoeuvres since the Cold War.

Russia, which shares a border with Norway, has been briefed by Nato on the exercises and invited to monitor them, but the move has still angered Moscow. Russia's Defence Minister warned that Moscow could be forced to respond to increased Nato military activities near its western border.

"Nato's military activities near our borders have reached the highest level since the Cold War times," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, noting that the war games will be "simulating offensive military action".

Speaking on a trip to Belarus, Shoigu also warned that Poland's plan to permanently host a US army division would affect regional stability and trigger a Russian response.

- AP