Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov Values US Policy Weaken Nuclear Nonproliferation

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. (Twitter/@mfa_russia)

JAKARTA - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a press conference that the United States policy weakened international nuclear non-proliferation provisions.

"The policies taken by Washington pose significant challenges to global nuclear non-proliferation," he warned.

"On the one hand, we see a clear weakening of control over nuclear weapons, largely due to the involvement of NATO countries and other US allies in the so-called joint nuclear mission and collective nuclear planning tasks," continued Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov.

"On the other hand, these same countries exploit the nuclear non-proliferation agreement - particularly its review process - to pursue political goals that have nothing to do with nuclear non-proliferation," he said.

The senior diplomat further said, "West groups are trying to turn non-proliferation agreements into a tool to put pressure on unwanted countries."

"The situation surrounding the Comprehensive Nuclear Trial Ban Agreement (CTBT) remains complicated," he said.

"The reason for this is the destructive attitude of the United States," said the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov recalled that the US Senate in 1999 rejected CTBT ratification under unreasonable pretexts, and "since then Washington has systematically avoided the ratification of the agreement, hiding behind various reasons."

"We have tolerated this imbalance for a long time, but this cannot continue indefinitely, because Russia has ratified the CTBT in 2000. As a result, 23 years after the event, in November 2023, we lifted our CTBT ratification, thus sending a political signal to the United States, they will not remain in a privileged position," said Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov.