The United States should have only “modest expectations” when seeking cooperation with Russia, which is working against U.S. interests in many parts of the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday in London.
“We look to engaging with Russia on a political or diplomatic level, but right now Russia is choosing to be a strategic competitor and we are finding that we can only have very modest expectations at this point of areas that we can cooperate,” Mattis said at a joint news conference with his British counterpart Sir Michael Fallon.
Mattis indicated the U.S. is close to responding to Russia’s violation of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces INF treaty: its secret deployment of a new ground-based cruise missile system in February.
Asked if the Russian deployment might prompt the U.S. to withdraw from the landmark arms control treaty, Mattis said, “We are in consultation with our allies and we are still formulating the way ahead, in fact, it will be addressed I think very, very soon as a matter of highest level concern.”
Russia’s cheating on the INF treaty is just one of many ways Russia is acting to challenge the Trump administration and undercut U.S. efforts around the world.
U.S. commanders have accused Russia of lending support to the Taliban in its long-running war with Afghanistan government forces backed by the U.S. and NATO.
This week, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, suggested to the House Armed Services committee that Russia might be supplying the Taliban with weapons.
“I think there’s a lot that we don’t know about what Russia is doing,” Votel said. “I think that it’s fair to assume they may be providing some kind of support to them in terms of weapons or other things that may be there. Again, I think that is the possibility.”
But Mattis stopped short of accusing Moscow of arming the Taliban.
“We have seen Russian activity vis-à-vis the Taliban. I am not willing to say at this point if that has manifested into weapons and that sort of thing,” Mattis said. “But certainly what they are up to there in light of their other activities gives us concern.”
Mattis said the U.S. has to take a tougher line with Russia now that it is no longer acting like a partner, unlike 5 or 10 years ago.
“It’s no longer a cooperative engagement with them,” Mattis said. “Right now we are going to have to carve out diplomatically some kind of maneuver room here, assuming Russian can change its behaviors and act in accordance with international norms and international law.”
