Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the US administration on the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty since the US has suspended its obligations to that treaty.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We have been discussing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the US for a number of years as part of our continuous dialogue on security issues. The US also initiated a series of meetings on INF with close Allies in 2017 and 2018, during which we discussed the US approach and exchanged detailed information on the Russian violation and how we might best achieve our shared policy objectives.
We support the US decision to suspend its participation in the INF Treaty and start the treaty's formal withdrawal process. A situation whereby the US was fully abiding by the INF Treaty and Russia was not, was not sustainable. Following the US announcement, NATO issued a statement declaring full support for US action and urging Russia to use the six month withdrawal period to return to full and verifiable compliance to preserve the INF Treaty.
Asked by: Emma Dent Coad (Labour - Kensington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Russian Government on the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty since the US suspended its obligations to that treaty.
Answered by Alan Duncan
NATO Allies first expressed concerns about Russian non-compliance with its INF Treaty obligations in 2014. In the last two years, there has been an intensification of Allied activity to encourage Russia to return to compliance.
We have not discussed INF directly with Russia since the US, and subsequently Russia, suspended their participation in the Treaty. However, we and our Allies stated our shared concerns during the NATO-Russia Council in late January.