The United States should be the initiator of the continuation of dialogue with Russia on strategic stability, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russian authorities canceled the meeting on the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) because the United States did not want to rely on Moscow’s priorities and signals. This is what the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov said, TASS reports on Tuesday, November 29.
“We are faced with a situation where our American colleagues in some areas have shown not only an unwillingness to accept our signals, to consider our priorities, but to act in the opposite direction. No we fully agree with the work program of the BCC (bilateral consultative commission – ed.), it has not been the main part, perhaps, it is to some extent a technical aspect, but it also has a good political meaning, ” said Ryabkov.
The diplomat emphasized that the decision to cancel the commission was taken by Moscow at the political level.
“The situation has developed in such a way that we have no other choice, the decision was made at the political level,” Ryabkov added.
According to him, Moscow sees that Washington is focused only on the continuation of the START inspection, and does not record the desire of the Americans to move further to the priority areas for the Russian Federation in this area: “We have repeatedly explained our position and the essence of our claims against Washington. Against the backdrop of a deep alienation, we did not see the slightest desire on the American side to act more in this direction, not only in the in terms of priority, but also in terms of values, between Moscow and Washington.”
Ryabkov said that after some time Moscow will offer new dates for the START commission meeting, but “it will not happen immediately.”
“We are not focusing on the end of the year,” the deputy minister stressed. “It is now too early to discuss how and when we will submit new proposals and what time frame we will ultimately focus on.”
Ryabkov also believes that the United States should initiate the continuation of dialogue with Russia on strategic stability. And negotiations in this area are possible only if Washington wants to have an equal dialogue.
“We believe that dialogue is possible only on the principle of the balance of interests, the search for common denominators, there can be no unilateral imposition here. If the Americans knew this, they would act in this way, then there opportunities. If not, then this dialogue has no prospects, even to continue it,” he concluded.
It will be remembered that in October 2022, the United States and Russia exchanged data on the number of strategic offensive weapons of the two countries under the START Treaty.
News from Correspondent.net on Telegram. Subscribe to our channel Athletistic
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.