US dumps INF Treaty: Nato seeks constructive relation with Russia

Moscow, Feb 2: The US might has eventually taken the step of withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty starting from Saturday, February 2.

President Donald Trump has vowed to work on options related to military response to deny Russia from gaining advantage and work closely with its allies including the Nato members but according to Russia's TASS News Agency, the military alliance stresses on a constructive relationship with Russia despite the US's withdrawal from the treaty, a statement from Brussels said on Friday, February 1.

"We continue to aspire to a constructive relationship with Russia, when Russia's actions make that possible," the statement read.

The alliance also placed responsibility for the US exiting the INF treaty on Russia. The pull-out procedure will take six months.

The announcement of the US's pulling out of the INF Treaty, yet another international mechanism, was made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said Washington would not abide by the treaty's obligations from February 2.

Trump said earlier that the US would no longer remain the only side to abide by a treaty. The US has been accusing Russia of not honouring the treaty obligations for some time now. Trump expressed his intention to pull the US out of it in October last year.

An American official said on Friday that the US would notify Russia and other post-Soviet states via diplomatic channels of the US's decision to apply Article 15 of the 1987 treaty and to suspend its obligations under the same, the TASS report added.

Signed by the US and erstwhile Soviet Union in December 1987, the INF Treaty applies to deployed and non-deployed ground missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometres) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometres).

It was signed by late American president Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.