OREANDA-NEWS. The official representative of Chenese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying stated that official Beijing does not agree with the proposal of the Foreign Minister of Japan to create a new structure for replacing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).

Earlier, the Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said that the world needs to create a new structure to replace the INF Treaty. It should include all nuclear countries – Russia, the USA, China, Great Britain and France.

“As for making the INF Treaty multilateral, we have already said that this is a bilateral treaty concluded by Russia and the USA. If the treaty becomes multilateral, it will affect a number of complex political, military and legal matters… The Chinese side does not agree with it,” Hua Chunying said at a briefing, commenting on the proposal of the Japanese minister.

She emphasized that there is nothing new in this proposal, and this idea will not help to forget the INF Treaty. “This is just a lame excuse for a unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the treaty,” the politician said. “We hope that Russia and the United States will be able to resolve contradictions through dialogue and make efforts to preserve the treaty. This is important for maintaining global strategic stability and peace,” the Chinese diplomat added.

She suggested the Japanese Foreign Minister “to persuade the United States not to withdraw from the treaty.”

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump and the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a unilateral US withdrawal from the INF Treaty, accusing Russia of a violation of its norms. The stumbling stone is the 9M729 missile, the modernization of the 9M728, which is a part of the Iskander-M complex. According to the United States, its maximum range exceeds 500 kilometers, and this fact makes it a subject of the INF Treaty. Russia denies these accusation and showed a missile to foreign press attaches, but the representatives of the United States and NATO did not come to the meeting.

In response to Washington’s decision, Russia also suspended participation in the INF treaty and stated that it starts to develop missile systems prohibited by the agreement.