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Russian Foreign Ministry comments on US missile defense system’s buildup

Russia calls for compliance with the New START treaty, the Foreign Ministry stresses

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The United States’ ongoing efforts to build up its missile defense system create conditions for unleashing another spiral of arms race, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, commenting on the US Department of State’s 2017 Compliance Report.

"The United States’ unbashed efforts to form a missile defense system are adversely impacting the system of international security and seriously complicate relations not only in the Euro-Atlantic but also in the Asia-Pacific regions. It has become a biggest obstacle on a path of further phased nuclear disarmament and is a breeding ground for dangerous prerequisites for unleashing another round of arms race," the ministry stressed.

New START treaty

Russia will press for compliance with the New START treaty by the US, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"Relying on the formats of collaboration envisioned in the treaty, we keep up dialogue with the US and continue a search for solutions to the problems related to the implementation of the treaty and we'll continue pressing for strict compliance with the treaty on the part of the US," the ministry said.

 The United States is seeking to conceal its numerous violations of international arms control and non-proliferation treaties, the ministry said.

"In the recent years, we have more and more grounds to think that the real reason behind such actions of the United States (violations of liabilities under treaties with other countries - TASS) is not mere unwillingness to plunge into a difficult expert dialogue in the interests of removing these or those concerns. As a matter of fact, something more serious is behind it as Washington is afraid to be caught in advancing ungrounded accusations against other nations stemming, to a larger extent, from the need to hide from the international community the numerous violations of international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation treaties committed by the United States itself," the ministry stressed.

Nerve agents

The US continues issuing patents for inventions related to nerve agents it is well known the Americans have issued about 140 patents to date, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"We find it necessary to make a reminder that the US, not Russia in any case, remains the only signatory of the Convention for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that keeps a sizable arsenal of chemical weapons," the ministry said in a commentary.

"More than that, open sources of information indicate the US issues patents for the inventions related to full-fledged poisonous chemical agents, including nerve agents," the commentary said.

"In all, they have issued about 140 patents for the use of toxins of the kind," it said.

Non-proliferation treaty

The United States still fails to observe key provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"The United States keeps claiming that it meets all obligations under the NPT. However, the alarming situation related to Washington’s non-compliance with key provisions of the treaty remains unchanged. The United States continues to involve European non-nuclear states in the so-called joint nuclear missions," the ministry said, commenting on the US Department of State’s Report on Adherence to and Compliance With Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments.

"Those ‘missions’ include elements of nuclear planning and practical training of the use of nuclear weapons with the participation of strategic aircraft by the alliance’s non-nuclear states, their crews, airfields and ground services. It all constitutes a direct violation of the treaty’s Articles I and II," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

According to Moscow, the problem of joint nuclear missions has only one solution - the return of all non-strategic weapons to the US territory and the ban on deploying them abroad, the dismantlement of all infrastructure for rapid deployment of those weapons and total prohibition of any kind of drills on the use of such weapons by non-nuclear states.

Besides, in recent years the United States "launched an unprecedented modernization of all components of the US nuclear arsenal, including non-strategic nuclear weapons deployed in other countries."

"Against this background, the document’s references to the baseless assumption about the growth of the ‘Russian nuclear threat,’ actively promoted by the United States, look particularly cynical," the ministry said.

"Provisions of our military doctrine, regarding the possibility of using nuclear weapons, have been deliberately distorted," it continued. "The Western public is being persistently indoctrinated that Russia allegedly reviews its vision of the role of nuclear weapons by placing a stronger emphasis on it. This is untrue.".