Russia said on Monday it would take measures to defend itself if the United States stationed missiles in Asia following the collapse of a landmark arms control treaty and that it expected Japan to deploy a new U.S. missile launch system.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that he was in favor of placing ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia relatively soon.

The U.S. official made the comment a day after Washington withdrew from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era pact signed in 1987 that banned land-based missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.