Russia is not ready to discuss strategic stability with the United States, even in the Nuclear Five format, the adviser to the Russian foreign minister, Vladimir Leontiev, said on Thursday.
“In light of everything that is happening now, we consider the US ideas fundamentally unacceptable. There is not and cannot be any basis not only for additional joint or coordinated measures in arms control and risk reduction, but also for a general discussion of strategic stability amid Washington-led hybrid aggression of the West against Russia. This includes both bilateral and multilateral formats, such as, for example, the Nuclear Five,” Leontiev said during a meeting organized by the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund in Moscow.
Russia does not dismiss the concept of arms control in the long term, the official also said. However, the dialogue on this matter can only be resumed once Washington and its allies abandon their current line of policy aimed at undermining Russia’s security and their “demonstrative disregard” for Russia’s security interests, he added.
In addition, such critical disagreements in security as NATO’s eastward expansion must be eliminated before any dialogue can begin, the official said.
“All these are our principled approaches, and they were communicated to the Americans through diplomatic channels last December. For us, this is a principled position and there is no alternative to it,” Leontiev said.
The Nuclear Five is an informal group of nuclear-weapon states, which includes China. France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. In August 2023, the chairmanship of the group passed from the US to Russia. In September 2023, an expert meeting of the group members took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
SPUTNIK
