Share A LinkedIn icon Share by linkedin An email icon Share by email

KEY POINTS Russia has failed to agree with the U.S over a missile it has developed.

NATO has called on Russia to come back within the terms of a treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.

The Russians have developed a missile which NATO says could lower the bar for the use of nuclear arms.

The U.S. looks set to quit a missile treaty with Russia after the latter failed to agree to destroy a nuclear-capable missile which is said to be banned under a decades-old agreement. A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels on Friday broke up without agreement between Moscow and NATO's 29 member countries. Russia has said it will not comply with a February 2 deadline to destroy the missile, which is called the SSC-8 by NATO. The missile is thought to be able to carry nuclear weapons at medium range and with short notice, thereby threatening European cities.

At Davos on Thursday, the secretary general of NATO warned that the new missile from Russia not only breaks a treaty with the U.S. but also lowers the bar for the use of nuclear weapons. In October, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. will end its 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, accusing Moscow of violating its terms by developing the missile that contravenes the agreement. At the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Jens Stoltenberg agreed: "Russia is in violation of that treaty. They have developed and deployed new missiles which are mobile, hard to detect, have a short warning time and they are therefore reducing the threshold for the use of any nuclear weapons," he said. The INF Treaty between the U.S. and Russia sought to eliminate nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, with short ranges (310–620 miles) and intermediate ranges (620–3,420 miles). Stoltenberg said NATO would do what it could to help preserve the INF treaty but his military commanders were already looking into the consequences of Russia's new weapon and how it would need to be opposed. "This is really serious and we have to do this in a measured and responsible way." he said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a news conference at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 15, 2018. Yves Herman | Reuters

US commitment to NATO