Donald Trump has promised to spend more than Russia if a new missile pact is not concluded

US President Donald Trump promised on Tuesday that the United States would spend more than Russia on missiles if a new international agreement was not reachedafter rejecting a historic Cold War treaty.

The United States began the exit process of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty last week (INF by its acronym), stating that Russia had violated the pact with a new missile system and ignored repeated complaints.

"Under my government, we will never apologize for defending the interests of the United States"said Trump before Congress.

"Maybe we can negotiate a different deal, adding China and others, or maybe we can not, in which case we will spend more and innovate, by far, more than anything else", he said.

In addition to pointing to Russia, US officials worried that INF does not impose limits on China, whose growing military forces rely on medium-range missiles as the center of their defense strategy.

The INF Treaty of 1987, negotiated by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, it prohibited the use of missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers and put an end to the dangerous development of nuclear warheads between the two.

The agreement solved the Soviet SS-20 missile crisis destined for western European capitals and for which the United States deployed Pershing missiles.

The president rusor Vladimir Putin replied on Saturday that Moscow would also leave the INF Treaty.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigú said on Tuesday that Putin had approved plans for new missiles.

"During the years 2019-2020, it will be necessary to develop a terrestrial version of the Kalibr system (…) used in Syria", Said Shoigú, quoted in a statement from the Russian armed forces.

"During the same period, we will have to create a long-range ground missile system", he added.

(With information from AFP)