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US President Donald Trump will listen to the advice of his administration’s members before making the final decision on whether to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said, TASS reports.
"I was in Prague the day before yesterday and I met with our two NATO nations' ministers there, there were two other nations when I was in Manama last Saturday. And we're doing everything we can to try to find any option [of solving the INF Treaty issue]," Mattis said in a speech at the Washington-based US Institute of Peace on Tuesday, adding that Washington would "continue to collaborate very, very closely with our allies and consult with them, and that's both through the ministers of defense and ministers of foreign affairs."
He also expressed hope that the INF Treaty issue would be central during the upcoming meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
"I don't want to go into too much details, but there are options - both symmetrical and asymmetrical - that are available, but I am not committed to anything right now. That's a grave decision, that the President will take council from all of us and it will be up to President Trump, and his views on nuclear weapons (and I think it is pretty well known - he hates them). And we will be working this issue with him," the US official added.