US wants to discuss arms control with Russia and China
(Baonghean.vn) - At the meeting of the United Nations Security Council, US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Washington wants to invite Moscow and Beijing to start negotiations on arms control.
The US wants to engage in bilateral arms control discussions with Russia and China "now and without preconditions", the US permanent representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said.
“All you have to do is say yes and come to the negotiating table in good faith,” the US diplomat said.
Commenting on this US initiative, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that "the authors clearly do not care" about the content of President Vladimir Putin's 2024 State of the Union Address. In it, the Russian leader particularly emphasized that Moscow sees that Western countries are calling for Russia's strategic defeat on the one hand, and on the other hand, they want to negotiate with Russia on strategic stability. President Putin stressed that this is impossible.
The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that Moscow's position has not changed and that it is ready to discuss security and stability issues only if it considers aspects that directly affect Russia's interests. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia is currently being offered to conduct dialogue on US terms, and only on issues directly related to Washington.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that now dialogue on strategic stability can only “take place honestly”, and not in the way “to which the US is accustomed”. He added that trust cannot be restored in the context of Russia being publicly declared a hostile state and a threat that must be destroyed.
In 2023, in his State of the Nation Address, President Putin announced that Moscow was suspending its participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Reduction Treaty. According to him, it is necessary to take into account the strategic arsenals of France and Britain in the total strike potential of NATO.
Washington has stopped transmitting information to Moscow about the status and location of its strategic weapons covered by the treaty, and revoked visas issued to Russian experts to conduct inspections under the New START Treaty. The US also announced that it would stop providing telemetry information on intercontinental ballistic missile and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches.
