OREANDA-NEWS. The parliamentary faction of the Left Party of Germany believes that the German government has not made enough mediation efforts to maintain the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty). This was announced on Thursday in Berlin by deputy chairman of the faction Sevim Dagdelen.

"Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas seem to have underestimated the significance of this treaty, which was concluded in 1987. By assisting US President Donald Trump, they are partly responsible for destroying this historically important treaty. Instead of taking confidence-building measures, actively fighting for the preservation of the INF Treaty and insisting on an independent assessment of the mutual accusations of the United States and Russia, the government irresponsibly repeated Trump’s unproven accusations", she said.

The first such accusation by the United States occurred in 2014, after the Ukrainian events. Russia denies Washington’s findings with all its might and makes counter claims. The Russian Federation has also repeatedly pointed out that work on the development of new generations of cruise missiles in Russia - in full compliance with the INF Treaty - began as a result of the US unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. Moreover, Russia has repeatedly warned the United States of the imminent threat of a new round of the missile arms race at a stage when the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty was just being discussed.

In December 2018, the United States put forward the ultimatum to Russia to destroy new 9M729 type cruise missiles, which, according to Washington and its NATO allies, violate the INF Treaty. Moscow rejected these claims, saying that the technical characteristics of 9M729 missiles are within the parameters allowed by the agreement. All information provided, including the presentation of this missile to a foreign military attaché, was ignored by the United States and NATO countries.