RFE/RL:
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the Western military alliance must be prepared if Russia ignores calls to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a cornerstone of arms control for decades.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Bulgarian Service on March 1, Stoltenberg said NATO needed to start “planning for a situation without the INF Treaty, with more Russian missiles.”
Stoltenberg was in Bulgaria for the 15th anniversary of the country joining NATO. He earlier held talks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
Last month, Washington formally suspended its obligations under the 1987 INF Treaty that bans all land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
This came after Washington and NATO repeatedly accused Moscow of violating the accord by developing the 9M729 cruise missile, also known as the SSC-8.
