Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in Rome, Italy, December 6, 2019. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

ROME (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Russia will not hesitate to respond to any new deployment of missiles by the United States.

“We will have a mirror reaction”, Lavrov said. “Every step will have a Russian reaction,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Rome with his Italian counterpart, speaking through an Italian interpreter.

Russia has proposed a moratorium on the deployment of short and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe after the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) banning such a move formally ended in August.