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Russia will not deploy nuclear forces outside its territory — Lavrov

Russia is interested in ensuring its conventional forces should be capable of coping with missions around the globe, Russian Foreign Minister said

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Russia does not believe that for maintaining its security it may have to deploy nuclear weapons outside its national territory, but at the same time it is interested in ensuring its conventional forces should be capable of coping with missions around the globe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a live interview to three radio stations on Wednesday.

"We do not believe that the security of our country must be maintained by moving our nuclear forces some other places," he said. "As far as the conventional forces, including the Navy and the Air Force, are concerned, we are interested in ensuring they should be able to cope with tasks around the globe. We use airdromes and ports and are prepared to negotiate the creation of logistic facilities with other countries."

Lavrov said Russia did not need foreign bases identical to those of the United States.

"But the opportunities for making a stop, fuelling the tanks, giving the crew sometime for rest and recreation and replenishing supplies should certainly be built up," he added.

According to the minister, Moscow doubts the sincerity of the US idea of a ‘nuclear zero’ because it is necessary to take into account new technologies in the nuclear sphere.

"The nuclear zero idea looks crafty in a sense. We have not just set the task of banishing nuclear weapons. We have set the task of making the world a safe place," he said. "That means that we must rely on the new military technologies that have emerged since the invention of nuclear weapons and that influence strategic stability.

"For instance, the United States is developing hypersonic weapons, which will be non-nuclear, but still strategic. The program is called prompt global strike," Lavrov said. "The ultimate aim is to have the capability to attack any spot on the globe within an hour after the decision has been made."

"True, this weapon will be more humane than the one used in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but from the point of view of its military effects it will be more powerful that nuclear weapons," Lavrov said. "Also, there is a great problem with US plans for putting weapons in space and attaining the same aims from there."