Russia says there is ‘no basis’ for arms control, strategic stability dialogue with US

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia on Monday said that there is currently “no basis” to hold an arms control and strategic stability dialogue with the US amid the ongoing war between Moscow and Kyiv.

“There is no basis whatsoever for an arms control and strategic stability dialogue with the United States in the face of a total hybrid war being waged against our country … It will be possible to discuss these topics only after the US authorities renounce their openly hostile anti-Russian policy,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a video address to the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference.

Lavrov expressed that efforts to reduce the potential of a conflict between Russia and the US should be “comprehensive in nature” and based on removing NATO’s eastward expansion.

He further said the West is balancing on the “dangerous edge” of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers, indicating that Moscow is especially concerned that the three nuclear powers in the West are among Ukraine’s main supporters.

“The US-led ‘collective West’ is cynically complementing the deliberate destruction of balanced and equal agreements that do not suit Washington with the promotion of apparently dishonest schemes that would create advantages for the United States,” Lavrov also said.

He argued that the West’s goal is to create a “unilateral military advantage for themselves by setting new limits for nuclear arsenals while formalizing the aggregate Western superiority in the sphere of non-nuclear capabilities,” adding that the US and its allies are enlarging their network of alliances “directed against third countries” to achieve military superiority.

Lavrov went on to say that Russia’s move to revoke the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty last year was a “logical response to the destructive moves by the US and other Western countries.”

“That said, we remain a full-fledged party to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Not so long ago, we completed the formation of our segment of the International Monitoring System. We are ready to return to the issue of its ratification as soon as the US does this,” he said.

The Russian foreign minister also accused the Western countries of “tailoring” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to their interests.

“We are convinced that to prevent further degradation of the world situation, maintain durable stability and create realistic disarmament, all countries should pool their efforts to upgrade the international security system relying on the principles of multilateralism, equality and indivisibility. This is the only way of reducing interstate conflicts and ensuring real progress in arms control,” he said.