NEW YORK, Dec 05 (Agencies): Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Tuesday that the Trump administration would begin the formal process to scrap the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty within 60 days unless Russia returns to compliance with the treaty's terms.
"The burden falls on Russia to make the necessary changes," Mr. Pompeo said. "Only they can save this treaty."
If Russia does not come back into compliance by the deadline, the Trump administration will begin a formal, six-month process to end the treaty, Mr. Pompeo said.
During those months, the United States will still not test or deploy missiles that would abrogate the pact, known as the INF Treaty, he said.
Mr. Pompeo received unanimous support from NATO allies for his contention that Russia was in violation of the treaty.
They issued a statement concluding that while Washington has abided by the 1987 treaty, which prevents the development and deployment of ground-based intermediate-range missiles, Russia has been violating it for years.
The Russians have developed and deployed a ground launched cruise missile system, the SSC-8, also known as the 9M729.
NATO leaders urged Moscow to take steps to maintain the treaty. "We call on Russia to return urgently to full and verifiable compliance with the I.N.F. Treaty," the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said. "It is now up to Russia to preserve the I.N.F. Treaty."
Although it is unclear how he will react to Tuesday's ultimatum, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has generally resisted Western pressure to change his government's behavior, despite repeated rounds of sanctions.
Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, denied assertions that Russia had broken the treaty. The state news agency TASS quoted her as saying that "Russia fully adheres to the treaty's provisions.
The American side knows that." Mr. Pompeo's announcement came at the end of a day of meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
In October, the Trump administration said it planned to leave the treaty, alarming many of its closest European allies, who fear a new nuclear competition between Washington and Moscow, with Europe as the playing field.
Some quietly complained the Americans should have done a far better job consulting with them before making such a decision.
Mr. Pompeo's 60-day deadline could be seen as a gesture toward European worries, especially from Germany, which ever since the Cold War has been anxious about becoming the battlefield for strategic competition between the United States and Russia.
Meanwhile, Moscow on Wednesday dismissed US claims that Russia is violating a major Cold War treaty limiting mid-range nuclear arms, from which Washington is planning to withdraw.
"Groundless accusations are again being repeated," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday declared Russia in "material breach" of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.
"No proof has been produced to support this American position," Zakharova said.
She described the treaty as a "cornerstone of global stability and international security".
Pompeo said during a meeting with fellow NATO foreign ministers that the US would withdraw from the deal within 60 days if Moscow does not dismantle missiles that Washington say violate it.
NATO said it was now "up to Russia" to save the treaty.
In October, President Donald Trump sparked global concern by declaring the United States would pull out of the treaty and build up America's nuclear stockpile "until people come to their senses".
