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Meeting in Brussels, NATO Defense Ministers approved a series of political and military measures to respond to the threat of Russia's new SSC-8 missiles in violation of a 1987 treaty, prohibiting gear with a range of between 500 and 5,500 km.
A final meeting with Russia is scheduled next week at the ambassadorial level, but there is little chance for the treaty and its control mechanisms to be saved. It was one of the last arms control mechanisms in Europe after the end of the ABM treaties on nuclear weapons and CFE on conventional weapons. On nuclear forces at intermediate range (FNI), NATO is reaching out to the Russians, too believe it either.
► See also: [Analysis] Slow erosion of arms control agreements
It is a balancing act to which NATO has devoted itself on the question of the announced end of the INF Treaty. How to remain credible and dissuasive, without ruining diplomatic efforts to bring Moscow back to the table? An NATO-Russia council is scheduled to take place on July 5 at NATO headquarters, although little is expected from this last-chance meeting.
As a result, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured Wednesday that the Alliance would strengthen its defenses, but without deploying new missiles in Europe. In other words, the Alliance does not want a new Euromissile crisis, as when in the 1980s US rockets Pershing and SS20 Russian faced each other in Europe.
But NATO recalls that the SSC-8 incriminated missiles are difficult to "detect" when deployed. Clearly, the Alliance could strengthen its means of observation and intelligence at the gates of Russia: this is generating additional tension.
In the end, the death of the treaty could well settle the Americans as the Russians. Moscow could continue to deploy these missiles to weigh politically on European countries, particularly in the East; the United States could, in turn, develop weapons of several thousand kilometers to calm the fervours of Beijing in the China Sea.