Russian President Vladimir Putin proposes mutual missile site inspection to NATO

In the wake of United States and Russia's exit from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has now proposed to NATO mutual inspections of each other's military bases in an effort to secure a moratorium on the deployment of new missiles in Europe. As per reports, Putin made the proposal to NATO on Monday, October 26. United States and Russia had opted out of the arms control treaty accusing each other of breaches.

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Russia makes proposal to NATO

While the treaty between the US and Russia may have fallen apart, Putin has vowed not to deploy the weapons listed in the treaty as long as the United Stated does deploy such weapons in Europe. In response to Putin's statements, Washington has claimed that Russia has already broken the treaty and deployed banned weapons, an accusation that the Kremlin has rejected.

In a statement, Putin claimed that the US’s decision to pull out of the treaty "was a serious mistake that exacerbated the risks of a missile weapons race, growth of the confrontation potential and slide into uncontrolled escalation." Thus believing that in such a situation "vigorous efforts are needed to ease the shortage of trust, to strengthen regional and global stability", Putin offered NATO and US inspectors access to sites to ensure that the weapons that were previously banned under the treaty have not been deployed in Europe.

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Putin also added that allowing inspectors to conduct on-site inspections will significantly lower the risk of misunderstandings and disagreements. In exchange, Russia wishes for the US to allow its own experts to visit US missile defence facilities in order to ensure that the sites can not be adapted to house surface-to-surface missiles instead of interceptor missiles.

Russia and the United States’ disagreements come at a time of great uncertainty in the face of arms control treaty expiration in February 2021. The two nations have made progress towards agreements that would extend the pact, but differences still remain.

(With AP inputs, Image AP)

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