The U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison gave out a starch warning that the States will remove Russian missiles of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty if Russia does not stop violating the deal.
“We have been trying to send a message to Russia for several years that we know they are violating the treaty. We have shown Russia the evidence that we have, that they are violating the treaty,” Hutchison said, according to a U.S. NATO mission transcript of a press conference on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in Brussels.
“They are building a medium-range ballistic missile in violation of the INF. That is a fact which we have proven,” she added.
Hutchinson was asked what type of sanctions the U.S. and NATO would impose against Russia amid violation, to which she said that “the countermeasures would be to take out the missiles that are in development by Russia in violation of the treaty.”
“Getting them to withdraw would be our choice, of course. But I think the question was what would you do if this continues to a point where we know that they are capable of delivering. And at that point we would then be looking at a capability to take out a missile that could hit any of our countries in Europe and hit America in Alaska,” she noted.
Later on Tuesday Hutchinson said she “was not talking about preemptively striking Russia” when she said the U.S. would have to “take out” the Russian missiles.
“I was not talking about preemptively striking Russia. My point: (Russia) needs to return to INF Treaty compliance or we will need to match its capabilities to protect U.S. & NATO interests. The current situation, with (Russia) in blatant violation, is untenable,” Hutchinson wrote on Twitter.
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