Despite the United States’ withdrawal from the INF Treaty, Moscow is still ready for dialogue on intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Sunday.
“We are keeping the door open. As long as the US doesn’t deploy such systems to Europe, we won’t do the same, and as long as there are no US missiles in Asia, there won’t be our missiles in the region,” Shoigu said.
He pointed out that Russia had repeatedly called for dialogue on the issue. “Between February and August 2, we kept on opening doors,” he noted.
Shoigu also said that the Russian Defense Ministry had presented data on the 9M729 missile at a briefing in Moscow but US representatives had chosen not to attend the event.