U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a press conference as he attends the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium on December 04, 2018. Dursun Aydemir | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Tuesday that the United States is prepared to withdraw from a crucial weapons treaty signed by the world's two biggest nuclear powers. Pompeo offered Russia an ultimatum: come into compliance in 60 days or the United States will leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, Treaty. Russia, Pompeo said, has developed "multiple battalions of the SSC-8 missiles," a move that falls outside of the Cold War-era arms agreement. "Its range makes it a direct menace to Europe," he said after a meeting with his NATO counterparts. "Russia's violation of the INF Treaty erodes the foundations of effective arms control and undermines Allied security. This is part of Russia's broader pattern of behavior that is intended to weaken the overall Euro-Atlantic security architecture," wrote NATO foreign ministers in a joint statement. "We call on Russia to return urgently to full and verifiable compliance. It is now up to Russia to preserve the INF Treaty."

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) looks at U.S. President Donald Trump during the welcoming ceremony prior to the G20 Summit's Plenary Meeting on November 30, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images

The INF treaty, signed in 1987 between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, prohibited the development and deployment of midrange nuclear-tipped missiles. The agreement forced each country to dismantle more than 2,500 missiles with ranges of 310 miles to 3,420 miles from their arsenals. In short, the treaty has kept nuclear-tipped missiles off the European continent for the last 30 years. Some observers said the administration was on the right track. "After 10 years of violations and four years of being called out by the United States, the announcement is justified, measured and timely," said Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But others said more needs to be done to salvage the treaty. "Expressing hope, as Pompeo did, that Russia will return to compliance with the INF Treaty in 60 days is not a strategy," Kingston Reif, director of disarmament research at the Arms Control Association, told CNBC.