Real threat: Russia says West should focus on US deploying nuclear weapons in Europe
- In Reports
- 06:17 PM, Feb 07, 2022
- Myind Staff
Russia has said that the West should focus on the real threat of the US deploying nuclear weapons in Europe instead of talking about the 'hypothetical' deployment of Russian weapons in Belarus.
According to Sputnik, Russia's Director of the Department for Non-proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Yermakov said, “I would like to counter ask the question of whether our European colleagues see a threat to their security not in the hypothetical Belarusian, but in the actual deployment on the territory of a number of NATO countries of American nuclear weapons capable of hitting targets on the territory of Russia.”
Yermakov stressed that the participation of European non-nuclear states in NATO's 'joint nuclear missions' directly contradicts their basic obligations under the treaty on Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Yermakov told Sputnik, 'We categorically disagree with such duplicity of Western countries'.
In an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency, Vladimir Yermakov said the discussions over security guarantees have taken priority over strategic arms controls talks.
"Our further dialogue with the Americans regarding the strategic stability, to a big extent, will depend on how the issues linked to security guarantees are solved. At this point, no understanding has been reached regarding the schedule of new meetings for the strategic dialogue," Yermakov said.
Yermakov reiterated Russia's demand to the West about what he called the "inadmissibility" of NATO's further eastward expansion and the "necessity to return the configuration of the North Atlantic alliance's forces and details to the situation that was there in 1997."
Image credit: Rferl
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