Japan’s PM says US withdrawal from INF Treaty ‘undesirable’

The United States’ withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) would be undesirable, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday. He made the statement at a plenary meeting of the parliament’s upper house. Abe said that Japan highly values the treaty’s historic role in the disarmament process. “We believe it is an undesirable situation when the United States announces its plans to pull out of the treaty and claims that Russia has been violating it,” TASS quoted the PM as saying. However, Abe declined to comment on talks between Washington and Moscow on the issue and the two countries’ arguments.