US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced their concern on Friday over Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that Moscow was developing new "invincible" weapons, Berlin said Friday.
"The chancellor and the president voiced concern about Russian President Putin's latest remarks on arms development and its negative impact on international arms control efforts," said a statement by the German chancellery. Merkel and Trump addressed their concerns via telephone.
Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the German government was "worried about the entire security policy of Russia".
This ranged from "the blatant violations of international law through the annexation of the Crimea ... to threatening behavior against neighboring states to the deliberately undermining arms control agreements", he said.
Putin unveiled the new arsenal Thursday in a state of the nation address, and showed a series of video montages of missiles crossing mountains and oceans, heading over the Atlantic before striking the US eastern seaboard.
The United States on Thursday accused Moscow of openly breaching Cold War-era treaties by developing what Putin called a new generation of "invincible" hypersonic weapons and submarines.
NATO later condemned Putin’s announcement, saying it was “counterproductive.”
"Russian statements threatening to target Allies are unacceptable and counterproductive," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement.
She said the alliance would press ahead with its twin-track approach with Russia -- dialogue paired with strong deterrence and defense.
Moscow has been angered by NATO's expansion into former Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe and Putin warned that Russia would respond to any attack on one of its allies, though he said it would only ever be defensive in nature.
