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Mattis said Tuesday that he intends to bring the issue up during the NATO meeting. After four years of diplomatic effort, he said, the U.S. is living by the treaty and Russia is not. He said there is a lot of concern about that at the U.S. State Department and on Capitol Hill.

“I’m going to lay out the situation,” Mattis said during a news conference in Paris. “I want their advice as I return to Washington, D.C.”

Hutchison said the U.S. doesn’t want to violate the treaty but that Russia could force its hand.

“There will come a point in the future in which America will determine that it has to move forward with a development phase that is not allowed by the treaty right now,” she said.

Washington wants its NATO allies to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Moscow, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that all allies are concerned by Russia’s continued work on the system.

“Russia has not provided any credible answers on this new missile,” said Stoltenberg, adding that the INF is a “crucial element” of trans-Atlantic security which is now “in danger because of Russia’s actions.”

The U.S. accusations are likely to further strain relations between Moscow and the West that are at a low over Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea, its bombing campaign in Syria and accusations of Russian meddling in Western elections.

“We have been trying to send a message to Russia for several years that we know they are violating the treaty, we have shown Russia the evidence that we have that they are violating the treaty,” Hutchison said.

“We are laying down the markers so that our allies will help us bring Russia to the table.”

— With files from Reuters