The US is set to formally withdraw from a nuclear treaty with Russia, raising fears of a new arms race.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.
It banned missiles with ranges between five hundred to five thousand five hundred kilometres.
But earlier this year the US and Nato accused Russia of violating the pact by deploying a new type of cruise missile, which Moscow has denied.
President Donald Trump announced in February that the US would withdraw from the pact if Russia didn’t come into compliance, and set the deadline for 2 August.
Analysts fear that the collapse of the historic agreement could lead to a new arms race between the US, Russia and China.
