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Germany Wants to Expand INF Treaty to China, After US Already Buried It

Germany Wants to Expand INF Treaty to China, After US Already Buried It
folder_openEurope... access_time5 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

Germany says Russia should get China to join the INF treaty, citing a danger to Russia from Chinese missiles in a last-gasp effort to save the agreement which has already been ditched by the US arms buildup drive.

“Russia must have an interest in involving China in some sort of a disarmament treaty,” German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told Focus Magazine on Sunday. Apparently referring to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the minister explained that the Chinese mid-range missiles could technically reach the Russian territory, and said that “just as the Russian missiles are a threat to Europe, so are the Chinese ones for Russia.”

Russian lawmakers were receptive to the notion – in principle. Aleksandr Sherin, deputy head of the Russian State Duma's Defense Committee said that China, India and other nations possessing intermediate-range weapons should join a framework agreement regulating their possession, development and use. However, he said that claiming a Chinese threat to Russia would need “solid evidence.”

Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy head of the Senate International Relations Committee, was even more skeptical, dismissing the German minister's statement as “no more than words.”

“The Chinese missiles do not pose any threat to Russia,” Dzhabarov said.

The German minister's sudden concern about Russian security might come as a surprise. However, her motives become much clearer in the context of strained relations between Moscow and the West.

The INF Treaty is on its last legs, with Washington announcing its exit a month ago and Moscow following suit on Monday. All dialogue options seem to have been exhausted, with the US still refusing to listen to Russia's arguments and Moscow saying it would stop “knocking on the closed door.”

The 1987 agreement banned ground-based missiles with a range between 500km and 5,500km. The arrival time of such a missile usually amounted to between a mere five and seven minutes, leaving the other side almost no time to assess the threat and react. Launched from Russia, such missiles would not reach the US mainland but are capable of hitting any part of the European continent, meaning that Washington’s allies would pay the ultimate price of any dangerous escalation.

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