The Pentagon is developing new missiles after the missile treaty with Russia

The US Defense Department announced Friday that it would accelerate the development of new missiles after the exit from the Treaty on the reduction of short-range nuclear missiles with Russia, and the White House confirmed that he is not worried about the possibility of an arms race.

"Now that we have withdrawn, the Defense Ministry will continue to develop conventional surface-to-air missiles in response to Russia's actions," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement. "In 2017, the Americans began research into this missile system, while remaining within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Medium range.

The research was in response to Russia's non-adherence to the treaty since the Cold War. Research focused on the development of a "mobile, conventional, ground-to-air, transitory and ballistic missile system."

Esper again blamed Russia for the suspension of the treaty, saying it had committed "repeated and repeated violations of the treaty for years and during periods of several presidential administrations."

"As NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said, NATO's position is clear and united, Russia has violated the medium-range nuclear arms control treaty, and the United States has not done so."

For his part, US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that any new treaty on nuclear missiles should include Russia and China.

White House spokesman Hogan Giddley told Fox News that the treaty was "a cold-war deal," asserting that his country was not worried about an arms race with Russia.

The spokesman added that President Trump had good relations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

NATO
In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Stoltenberg repeatedly used words to support Washington's withdrawal from the treaty, saying that "NATO as a political entity distorts itself, by going behind the United States."

Stoltenberg commented on Washington's withdrawal by charging Russia with responsibility for ending the treaty and said NATO would respond "in a responsible and measured manner to the major risks posed by Russia's deployment of a 9M 729 missile to NATO security."

Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced his country's formal withdrawal from the missile treaty with Russia, in response to the latter's "violation" of the treaty. Trump said Thursday he hoped to reach a new treaty to replace the treaty signed in 1987, Not to test or deploy land-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km.