"The American partners have declared that they suspend their participation in the deal, we suspend it as well," Putin said during a televised meeting with foreign and defense ministers.



Putin said Russia will start work on creating new missiles, including hypersonic ones, and told ministers not to initiate disarmament talks with Washington, accusing the US of being slow to respond to such moves. "We have repeatedly, during a number of years, and constantly raised a question about substantiative talks on the disarmament issue, notably, on all the aspects," Putin said. "We see, that in the past few years the partners have not supported our initiatives." During the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also accused the US of violating the INF and other arms deals, such as the non-proliferation treaty. Putin said that Russia will not increase its military budget for the new weapons and it won't deploy its weapons in Europe and other regions unless the United States does so.

The US should resolve its differences with Russia through dialogue instead of threatening to withdraw from an important nuclear arms control agreement between the two nations, China's foreign ministry said on Saturday. The agreement officially expires in early 2021 but can be extended by another five years if both Washington and Moscow agree. However, Russian officials have accused the United States of inventing a pretext to end the treaty, allowing them to develop new weapons.The US should resolve its differences with Russia through dialogue instead of threatening to withdraw from an important nuclear arms control agreement between the two nations, China's foreign ministry said on Saturday.





"China is opposed to US withdrawal action and urges the United States and Russia to handle their differences properly through constructive dialogue," the statement said, warning that unilateral withdrawal could trigger "negative consequences". "As an important bilateral treaty in arms control and disarmament, the Intermediate-Range Treaty has great significance in improving relations between major powers, strengthening international and regional peace, and maintaining global strategic balance and stability," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement posted on its website. The row over the INF treaty is yet another twist in Russia's worsening relations with the US and the West on the whole.

Moscow's relations with the West have been at their lowest over a number of issues, including Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine as well as allegations of it meddling with the presidential election in the US and being behind a nerve agent attack in Britain. China's foreign ministry said it was not in favor of drawing up a multilateral arms control agreement to replace the Intermediate-Range Treaty, saying the issues were too complicated and that existing agreements should instead be maintained and implemented."China is opposed to US withdrawal action and urges the United States and Russia to handle their differences properly through constructive dialogue," the statement said, warning that unilateral withdrawal could trigger "negative consequences"."As an important bilateral treaty in arms control and disarmament, the Intermediate-Range Treaty has great significance in improving relations between major powers, strengthening international and regional peace, and maintaining global strategic balance and stability," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement posted on its website.

Russia has suspended the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, also instructing the government not to initiate disarmament talks with Washington.Russia's actions come as a response to the United States' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declaring on Friday that The United States is suspending its compliance with the INF treaty with Russia on Saturday and will withdraw from the landmark 1987 arms control accord in six months if Moscow does not end its alleged violation of the pact.Washington claimed that Russia's new Novator 9M729 cruise missile violates the agreement, which bans ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 km (310 to 3,420 miles).Russia denied the allegation, saying the missile’s range puts it outside the treaty, and has accused the United States of inventing a false pretext to exit a treaty Washington wants to leave anyway so it can develop new missiles. Russia has also rejected a US demand to destroy the new missile.