BERLIN, March 2. /TASS/. Germany is concerned over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement on the development of new weapons, German Government Spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters on Friday, stressing that Berlin hopes that Moscow will use the opportunities for dialogue.
"We are concerned over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement on the development of new weapons systems that he made two weeks before the election," the spokesman said.
This is alarming "amid the modernization of Russia’s army, including nuclear weapons and doubts that Russia honors its international commitments," he stressed. "We are concerned in general over Russia’s steps in security policy," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump expressed concerns over Putin’s announcement on the development of new weapons and "negative consequences of this for international efforts to control them" during their phone conversation on Thursday, Seibert said.
Merkel and Trump also discussed the situation in Syria and called on Russia to convince the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad to stop offensive in the populated localities.
In his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018, Putin said that Russia had launched the development and testing of state-of-the-art systems of strategic arms, such as the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and the Kinzhal hypersonic complex, being created in response to Washington’s withdrawal from the ABM Treaty on a unilateral basis and deployment of the system on the US territory and beyond.