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NATO Chief Stoltenberg reveals how aliance to "respond" to Russia’s Iskander-M missiles

13 January 2020 17:25 (UTC +04:00)

The NATO alliance will respond to the deployment of Russia’s Iskander-M missile systems, including those armed with the 9M729 missile, whose existence the US used to justify its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 2019, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said, AAThe NATO alliance will respond to the deployment of Russia’s Iskander-M missile systems, including those armed with the 9M729 missile, whose existence the US used to justify its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 2019, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said, APA reports citing Sputnik.

“When it comes to Russia’s SSC-8 [NATO designation for the 9M729], we will work on air defence and anti-missile systems, on conventional arms, on increasing military readiness and on extending warning times,” Stoltenberg said on Monday.

According to Stoltenberg, these measures have already been agreed upon by NATO’s defence ministers, and will be implemented in 2020.

Accusing Russia of “violating” the defunct INF treaty by deploying the 9M729, Stoltenberg called the missile’s deployment “part of the Russian strategy of investing heavily in modern capabilities, including modern nuclear weapons.”

Stoltenberg stressed that the measures the alliance would be taking would be ‘defensive’ in nature, and noted that the alliance has no plans to deploy nuclear-armed, ground-based nuclear missiles systems on the European continent.

NATO has repeatedly accused Russia of aggressively maneuvering its troops and missile systems inside its own borders, and marked concern over Moscow’s recent deployment of Iskander-Ms in the Russian exclave region of Kaliningrad.