Russia’s decision to suspend the New Start arms control treaty makes the world a more dangerous place, the secretary general of Nato has said.

 

---

Politic section CJ journalist

Edited by| Christian Megan

World – 21 Feb 2023   

---

“More nuclear weapons and fewer arms control make the world more dangerous,” Jens Stoltenberg said, urging Russia to reconsider its decision. “This is one of the last major arms control agreements we have,” he said, and “just another example” of a move away from the international rules-based order.

Speaking alongside him, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the Kremlin’s decision to abandon the New Start treaty was “another proof that what Russia is doing is demolishing the security system that was built at the end of the cold war”.

Vladimir Putin announced he was suspending Russia’s participation in the New Start treaty with the US in a long speech in which he blamed the west for starting the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels shortly after the Russian president had finished speaking, Stoltenberg said:

When the war ends, Stoltenberg said, “long-term arrangements for Ukraine’s security” would be needed “to break the cycle of Russian aggression”.

Borrell said he had written to EU defense ministers, who are meeting in early March, asking them to provide more ammunition to Ukraine from their stockpiles and speed up new supplies – which, he said, several countries were already doing. “The time parameters of what we have to do is measured in weeks, not months,” Borrell said.

Kuleba said Ukraine’s government would “thoroughly examine” a peace plan due to be presented by China later this week, saying the two countries shared a belief in the principle of territorial integrity.

The treaty between Moscow and Washington, signed in 2010, limits the number of atomic warheads the world’s two biggest nuclear powers can deploy and is due to expire in 2026.

“More nuclear weapons and fewer arms control make the world more dangerous,” Stoltenberg, standing alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, told reporters.

Replying to Putin’s accusations that the West was trying to destroy Russia, Stoltenberg said Moscow was the aggressor in Ukraine where it launched an invasion almost a year ago.

“It is President Putin who started this imperial war of conquest ... As Putin made clear today, he’s preparing for more war ... Putin must not win ... It would be dangerous for our own security and the whole world,” Stoltenberg added.

“I regret the decision by Russia to suspend its participation in (the) New START program”.

In Athens on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s decision was irresponsible and the United States would watch carefully to see what Moscow actually does.