THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Emre Peker and Thomas Grove
Published: Oct 2, 2018 5:00 p.m. ET
Kay Bailey Hutchison says may seek capability to ‘take out’ medium-range missiles
AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison arrives for the NATO summit in Brussels in July.
The U.S. ambassador to NATO said Washington could choose to “take out” new Russian missiles that Western allies say violate a nuclear-arms ban, if Moscow fails to comply with the Cold War-era treaty.
“They are on notice,” U.S. Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Tuesday ahead of a two-day gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s defense ministers in Brussels. If Russia’s new weapons reach a point where the U.S. knows they could hit NATO allies, she said, “we would then be looking at a capability to take out a missile.” Hutchison said in a Twitter message later that she wasn’t referring to a pre-emptive strike. “I was not talking about pre-emptively striking Russia,” she wrote. “The current situation, with Russia in blatant violation, is untenable.”
The U.S. ambassador to NATO said Washington could choose to “take out” new Russian missiles that Western allies say violate a nuclear-arms ban, if Moscow fails to comply with the Cold War-era treaty.
“They are on notice,” U.S. Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Tuesday ahead of a two-day gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s defense ministers in Brussels. If Russia’s new weapons reach a point where the U.S. knows they could hit NATO allies, she said, “we would then be looking at a capability to take out a missile.” Hutchison said in a Twitter message later that she wasn’t referring to a pre-emptive strike. “I was not talking about pre-emptively striking Russia,” she wrote. “The current situation, with Russia in blatant violation, is untenable.”
The State Department said Hutchison was referring to U.S. work on “improving our overall defense and deterrence posture.” The goal is “Russian compliance,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
Still, Hutchison’s news conference produced diplomatic shock waves, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova citing the “danger of such aggressive rhetoric,” in comments reported by the Russian news agency TASS.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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