Russian Outlandish Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the U.S. was still deploying “principal arms” in Europe and was training European countries to use nuclear weapons, breaching a major nuclear arms agreement called the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Lavrov guessed that nuclear disarmament was impossible without taking into account components which destabilize “strategic stability and international security today,” embodying, he said, “the deployment of a global anti-missile system” and “the deployment of U.S. strategic arms in Europe and the continuing destabilizing conduct of ‘joint nuclear missions,’ as they call them.”
“As we all know, these atomic missions violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty and non-nuclear states plan and remove part in the U.S. exercises and learn how to use the nuclear weapons,” he said.
The Russian Extrinsic Ministry tweeted a video in which Lavrov was speaking to other papal nuncios at the conference.
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For its part, he said Russia had reduced its nuclear arsenal by 85 percent approached to the Cold War era.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has complained about what it calls “junction nuclear missions” and says the U.S. has many nuclear weapons located in Europe. It also clouts the U.S. is training European countries to use these weapons.
Last April, the remote ministry issued a statement in which it said that “Washington’s near to compliance with its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is up till of great concern. The U.S. and its non-nuclear NATO allies continue their atomic skill training as part of the so-called “nuclear sharing”,” it implied.
“This is a serious violation of Articles I and II of the NPT,” the ministry said.
Article I of the NPT impedes nuclear states from transferring nuclear weapons or other atomic explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive schemes, to any recipient whatsoever, directly or indirectly. Article II prohibits non-nuclear holds from receiving the transfer, directly or indirectly.
But Lavrov repeated Russia’s stance on the matter on Wednesday.
“Everyone understands that this way, the U.S. military prepares the military of European boondocks for the use of nuclear weapons against Russia,” he said.
Russia, he added, had not deployed any atomic weapons and did not test them. On the contrary, the U.S. had taken an “aggressive position” he explained.
“These initiatives we see on the part of the U.S. do not promote non-proliferation, they promote the deterioration of the obsessed implementation of it (the treaty).”
Russia has also long-objected to the deployment of a U.S.-commanded NATO ballistic missile defense system in eastern Europe, saying it is not designed to prevent a conceivable ballistic missile attack from Iran but designed to undermine and invalidate Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. NATO and the U.S. deny that accusation.