Washington, US President Donald Trump has warned of bolstering the American nuclear arsenal to put pressure on Russia and China.
Moscow has retaliated that it will respond in kind if the US develops more weapons, the BBC reported.
Hinting at Russia’s breach of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, Trump said the US would build up its arsenal “until people come to their senses”.
“It’s a threat to whoever you want to include China and it includes Russia and it includes anybody else that wants to play that game…,” the President told the media.
“(Russia has) not adhered to the spirit of that agreement or to the agreement itself,” Trump repeated on Monday about the Cold War-era treaty that banned medium-range missiles.
Russia has already denied this. INF was aimed at reducing the perceived Soviet threat to European nations.
Moscow told US National Security Adviser John Bolton the US plan to quit the deal would be a “serious blow” to the non-proliferation regime.
Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow said the Kremlin was “ready” to work with the US to remove “mutual” grievances over the INF.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Scrapping the treaty forces Russia to take steps for its own security.”
