Belgium FM urges US to continue nuclear talks with Russia

1 Feb, 2019 09:57 / Updated 5 years ago

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has said he hopes the US will work closely with Russia to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons after it pulls out of a key Cold War-era missile treaty, AP reported. The Trump administration is poised to announce that it is withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty. Washington says Russia is violating it, while Moscow denies this. “I hope that our American colleagues, including outside the treaty framework, are going to keep working on this dialogue with Russia,” Reynders said Friday. “It’s not by leaving the multilateral framework that we’re going to succeed in having greater pressure or efficiency in the fight against nonproliferation.” The treaty bans ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500km (310 miles) and 5,500km (3,400 miles).