MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Colleagues from NATO are not ready to accept the steps, put forward by Moscow, to ensure predictability and moderation in the missile sphere, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated on Wednesday at the Plenary Meeting of the Missile Technology Control Regime in Sochi.
"Unfortunately, recent decades have seen the erosion of essential treaties, such as the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) and the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaties, which used to play a key role in ensuring predictability and restraint in the missile sphere at both global and regional levels. Russia had been trying hard to preserve those treaties," the senior diplomat said.
Furthermore, Ryabkov recalled Russia’s moratorium on the deployment of its ground-launched intermediate-and short-range missiles in Europe and other regions across the world until such American-produced systems appear there, as well as an appeal to "NATO countries to consider introducing a reciprocal moratorium and developing reliable verification mechanisms." "However, our colleagues from the North Atlantic Alliance do not seem ready to take such steps yet," the deputy foreign minister emphasized.