Brussels – Senior NATO and Russian officials made no progress Friday intalks on saving the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, raising thespectre of a renewed arms race in Europe.

“There was no real progress in the meeting today because Russia did notindicate any willingness to change their position,” NATO secretary generalJens Stoltenberg said.

Western capitals allege that Russia’s latest generation of medium-rangemissiles breach the terms of the Cold War era INF treaty, and put Europeancities at risk.

The United States has warned that it will begin a six-month withdrawalprocess from the treaty on February 2, unless Russia withdraws the 9M729ground-based missile system.

Moscow, however, denies that the missile breaches the accord — insistingthat it has a shorter range than the kind of cruise missiles banned underthe accord.

Senior Russian officials including deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkovattended Friday’s meeting in Brussels, but Stoltenberg said they gave noground.

“Russia is now violating the treaty by developing and deploying newmissiles,” Stoltenberg said.

“These new missiles are hard to detect, they are mobile, they arenuclear-capable, they can reach European cities and they reduce the warningtime and therefore the threshold for any potential use of nuclear weapons.”

Stoltenberg described the short period until February 2 and the subsequentsix-month US treaty withdrawal process as a “window of opportunity” forRussia to “come back into compliance.”

But, in the meantime, he said: “We have to realise that the treaty is inreal jeopardy. That’s the reason why we have asked our military commandersto look into the consequences of a world without an INF treaty.” – APP/AFP