Urmas Paet, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Mr President, recent developments indicate that the INF Treaty is likely to come to an end. This is unfortunate for its biggest beneficiary, Europe.

Since the United States has already confirmed that Russia has been in violation of the INF Treaty for years and NATO is also convinced that this is the case, and both the US, and later on Russia, have notified their intention to withdraw from the treaty, Europe might be facing another race to arms. Time is of the essence, and it is imperative that Russia uses this six-month period to return to full and verified compliance with the INF Treaty. That is the goal.

Meanwhile, the possible end of the INF Treaty shows us that there is a much larger problem, and that is the current state of affairs between Russia and the Western world. These developments indicate clearly that it is imperative to enhance cooperation between the Western countries, between NATO and the European Union – to demonstrate the unity of the Western world in response to Russia and others on this issue.

While the end of the treaty should be avoided by means of negotiations, it also demonstrates that the more global approach is needed on this issue, since time has moved on and there are more players in the game, like China and others.

Also new technologies have to be taken into account, like cyber and outer space. So, ideally, a new strategic stability framework would incorporate the essence of the IMF treaty and new players both geographically, but also new technologies.