Brussels _ Agencies
European Union (EU) Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini on Wednesday urged Russia and the United States to salvage the mid-term nuclear arms control treaty concluded during the Cold War.
The United States said it would withdraw from the 1987 treaty in 60 days, unless Moscow dismantles a cruise missile system that threatens to start the arms race again.
Mogherini demanded that the treaty be saved, warning that Europe does not want to become a battleground for world powers again, as it was during the Cold War.
"The Treaty on the reduction of intermediate-range nuclear weapons has ensured peace and security in the European territories for 30 years now," Mugherini said on arrival at the Atlantic headquarters in Brussels for talks with NATO foreign ministers.
"They must be fully adhered to, I hope that the time available to work will be used to preserve the Treaty and achieve its full implementation wisely by all sides, and we shall certainly try to do our part to make sure that this happens," she said.
US Secretary of state Mike Pompeu warned Russia Tuesday that if its mobile ground missile system is not dismantled, the United States will withdraw from the treaty within 60 days.
The United States and NATO say that the "9m 279" system, also known as "SS 8 ", violates the Treaty on the Limitation of Intermediate-Range nuclear Weapons (NPT), which bans the use of land-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km.
According to NATO, Russian missiles capable of loading nuclear warheads, which are difficult to monitor and can hit European cities within minutes, change the security accounts on the continent.
NATO ministers issued a statement accusing Russia of breaching the treaty, and of being responsible for causing significant risks to the security of European countries in the Atlantic Alliance. The statement blamed Russia for rescuing the treaty.
The ultimatum given by Washington to exit the Treaty will expire on the day of the NATO defense ministers ´ meeting in February 2019.
The intermediate-Range Nuclear Missile Treaty, signed by the late US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, ended the arms race in Europe, launched by Moscow after deploying the "SS-20" missiles capable of targeting Western European capitals.
