JAKARTA - Russian Foreign Ministry special ambassador Grigory Mashkov said in an article in Russia's 'International Affairs Journal' that it might lift quantitative restrictions on its nuclear arsenal, if the United States continues to advance with the development of missile defense systems.

"In reality that emerges, it is unlikely to talk about strategic stability in its classical bilateral context, or we may fall into another illusion," he explained.

"There have been many actors in the international arena who have influenced the global missile power range. It cannot be ruled out in the current confrontation with the West, with its policy of causing strategic damage to Russia, we may face the need to stay away from the restrictions on nuclear weapons and missiles in order to increase quantitatively and qualitatively," Mashkov continued.

He further explained that further development of Uncle Sam's country's global missile defense system "ends the prospect of reducing strategic offensive weapons and maintaining strategic stability in previous provisions."

"The missile arms race has been intense. Likewise, the modernization of nuclear weapons and WMD transport vehicles (mass destruction weapons) on a large scale. Space militarization is gaining momentum, which, in the near future, is likely to be another military confrontation event. New technology (artificial intelligence, quantum computers and others), which can multiply enemy potential in strategic areas, including missile defenses, is starting to play a role here," added Mashkov.

He saw one of the countermeasures in adjusting Russia's stance on certain aspects of the NPT.

"In particular, it will be possible to analyze and revise our approach to existing reality, for example, the final document of the 2000 Review Conference. The relevance of the seventh paragraph of its Practical Steps, which regulates the preservation and strengthening of the ABM Agreement, which was damaged by the US government two years after adoption, has undermined the comprehensive nature of the whole package," Mashkov said.

"We must review all of our commitments in the field of strengthening transparency and measures to build trust, and suspend discussions about nuclear risks and threats, which are nonsense in the context of increasing Western efforts to weaken the power of strategic and non-strategic nuclear prevention. In general, other areas such as arms control, gun cuts, and non-proliferation must be more in line with US global dominance ambitions. It is difficult to assess whether our cooperation policies with America are only in the fields they are interested in make sense, if that makes sense," he concluded.


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