RUSSIALINK: “It’s wrong to tie future of New START Treaty to situation around INF Treaty – Russian Foreign Ministry” – Interfax

MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry sees Washington’s attempts to tie the issue of preserving the New START Treaty to the situation surrounding the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as a mistaken approach.

“The Americans themselves both at the level of the executive branch of government and the level of the Congress have tied the prospect of preserving the New START Treaty to the situation around the INF Treaty,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“They have made this connection. These are their erroneous ideas of what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in the field of international security and at the negotiating table,” Ryabkov said.

“The root of the English word agreement is to agree,” he said.

“It is necessary to agree with someone. If everything is done in a unilateral way and without trying to find mutually acceptable formulas, it is no longer an agreement. It is unilateral diktat,” Ryabkov said.

“This is what the U.S. is increasingly indulging in. They are getting absorbed in the one-dimensionality of their own policy,” he said.

The U.S. “has been withdrawing literally at an accelerating pace from agreements that do not suit it for different reasons, ranging from UNESCO to the climate agreement and the Universal Postal Union,” he said.

“I am not even mentioning the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] with Iran. And now the INF Treaty may join this list too,” he said.

“This line is disturbing and dangerous to a large extent. We hope that not only we in Moscow, but also a lot of other capitals in the world are starting to see policy as something that poses a major threat,” Ryabkov said.

[featured image is file photo from another occasion]