MOSCOW, November 5 /TASS/. Russia said it would stick to its decision not to participate in preparations for the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary released on Wednesday.
“We regard the recent leaks in U.S. media as an unsuccessful attempt to exert pressure on the Russian side with an aim to force it to change its stance. We consider such efforts to be counterproductive,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Nuclear Security Summits in Washington /2010/, Seoul /2012/ and The Hague /2014/ adopted the final statements which formulated common approaches to the main aspects of international cooperation in this sphere and endorsed a joint Action plan.
“An agreement in principle that was reached assigns the IAEA /the International Atomic Energy Agency/, which has the necessary expert potential, with the central role in coordination of relevant efforts by the world community,” the Russian Foreign Ministry went on to say.
Most of the political commitments undertaken by participants in the previous summits have by now been fulfilled and considerable progress has been made in strengthening physical nuclear security. It means that the political agenda of those summits has practically been exhausted, the Russian Foreign Ministry said expressing great concern with the Washington-proposed concept of preparations for the event. It suggests giving special rights to the United States, South Korea and the Netherlands /as the previous summits hosts/ to the detriment and with open discrimination of other participants, most of which will be excluded from drafting the final documents.
“We cannot agree that working groups of limited composition formed in arbitrary form, as it has been planned by Washington, will prepare regulatory documents for such international organizations and initiatives as the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency /IAEA/, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, Global Partnership and Interpol. We consider it to be unacceptable to create a precedent of such external interference in planning the work of international organizations, which have a more considerable expert potential and whose activities rest on democratic procedures,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.
The proposed system of preparations for the summit does not give any guarantees to countries that may fall out of line with the policy to be pursued by its organizers that their opinion will be taken into consideration when plans of work for international organization are going to be worked out. These plans will be the main outcome of the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in the United States, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“We do not see an opportunity for us to participate in preparations for the fourth Nuclear Security Summit. We intend to focus on strengthening this kind of cooperation within the IAEA framework, including preparations for a regular high-level conference on this subject to be held under the IAEA aegis in 2016,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.
Russia informed its U.S. partners of its decision in mid-October this year.