Russia-West needs to agree on coexistence principles for arms control talk: Moscow

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Thursday said it is "very strange" for Russia to see the United States demanding the resumption of inspections under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) when it was Ukrainian forces who made attempts to strike at long-range aviation facilities, reported Sputnik.

"It is very strange, if not harsh, to demand the resumption of inspections at Russian facilities of strategic offensive forces when the Kiev regime has made attempts to strike at our long-range aviation facilities with the direct military-technical and intelligence-information participation of the United States," Ryabkov told Russian media.

US's demand of resumption of inspections under New START seems 'strange': Russian Deputy FM

He went on to say that Washington's demand for inspections raises one question, "What exactly are the Americans going to check there?" Maybe, the consequences of these attacks?" the deputy minister added. When Ryabkov was questioned about whether Moscow is concerned that the US will accuse Russia of violating the treaty without inspections and meetings of the bilateral consultative commission, Ryabkov replied that the collapse of New START will cause "deep regret" and that Moscow will not "forcibly" keep the United States in the agreement.

"If the Americans decide to aggravate the situation for propaganda purposes, it will be their choice. We are no strangers to Washington destroying arms control agreements instead of taking concrete, practical steps to strengthen their viability. "We proceed from the fact that the agreement objectively continues to meet the interests of both countries," he added.

Russia-West needs to agree on coexistence principles for arms control dialogue, says a Russian Diplomat

He stressed that an agreement between Russia-West is necessary on principles of coexistence to reduce potential conflict with the West, and added saying that any such discussions should be based on the principles of equality and strict parity. "No unilateral concessions are allowed here," he said. "For our part, we state that the over-the-top aggressiveness of the United States, which relied on inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia in the all-out hybrid war unleashed against us, made it practically impossible in principle to conduct constructive and fruitful dealings with Washington on arms control in the "business as usual" mode. "This, of course, does not mean that we are giving up arms control as such," the diplomat said.

Further, the Russian diplomat went on to say that current conditions were not right for new talks on the New START treaty, and no new date has been decided for talks with Washington. "The situation does not, frankly speaking, allow for setting a new date, taking into account this escalation trend in both rhetoric and actions by the United States," Ryabkov stated.

Image: AP