Russia calls on the US not to disrupt the balance of the arms control system

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks at a meeting in Moscow on July 4. Photo: AFP/TTXVN

“We intend to continue our plans to strengthen the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as well as the entire international legal system of arms control and non-proliferation. The formation of this system required great efforts of the international community over many decades, so we call on Washington to abandon its irresponsible course of disrupting the balance of this system,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In addition, Russia also criticized the US for deliberately ignoring the fact that Russia's chemical weapons destruction program was completed last year, carried out under strict international supervision and in full compliance with the CWC. According to the above announcement, Washington is showing "hypocrisy" by relying on baseless accusations of Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal to impose new sanctions against Russia, while the US is the only CWC member country that possesses a significant chemical weapons arsenal.

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement also stressed that Washington’s current actions threaten the integrity of the CWC and undermine the credibility of the OPCW. The United States has once again demonstrated its contempt for the international legal system and its attempts to use existing multilateral mechanisms to advance its own political agenda. This is the latest evidence that Washington is pursuing a policy with a clear aim to undermine the international disarmament and non-proliferation architecture.

The statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry came shortly after the US imposed new sanctions against Russia, accusing Moscow of using chemical weapons to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury.