MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday he will have talks with US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson in Prague on June 12.
"A round of consultations on strategic stability with US Under Secretary of State Thompson will be held in Prague on June 12," he told TASS. "The agenda will include the entire range of issues: from the situation around the New START Treaty to the problems of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We will ask the US side all our questions."
He also said he hopes his upcoming talks with Thompson will mark the beginning of a certain process. "We believe that the talks will not be a one-time event but will mark the beginning of a certain process. At least, this is what our leaders want us to achieve," he said.
The latest meeting in the Ryabkov-Thompson format was held in Beijing in late January, or a couple of days ahead of Washington’s suspending its participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). On February 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty and said Russia would not initiate talks with the United States on that matter until the US side was ripe for an equal and meaningful dialogue.
The INF, or the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Treaty was signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987 and entered into force on June 1, 1988. In 1992, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the treaty was multilateralized with the former Soviet republics - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine - as successors. The INF Treaty covered deployed and non-deployed ground-based short-range missiles (from 500 to 1,000 kilometers) and intermediate-range missiles (from 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers). By June 1991, liabilities under the treaty were implemented, with the former Soviet Union having destroyed 1,846 missiles and the United States having destroyed 846 missiles.