UNITED NATIONS, October 25. /TASS/. In its draft resolution, Russia urges the UN General Assembly to call upon Moscow and Washington to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and to restart a dialogue on strategic stability.

[The General Assembly] "calls upon States parties for efforts to strengthen the INF Treaty and to preserve its viability so that it remains a cornerstone in maintaining global strategic stability, world peace and regional security, and in promoting further nuclear arms reductions," says the draft resolution.

The second paragraph urges the States parties "to preserve and strengthen the ITF Treaty through full and strict compliance".

The draft resolution urges the parties to the INF "to develop additional cooperative measures, as appropriate, that can increase confidence in compliance with the INF Treaty and reduce the possibility of misinterpretation and misunderstanding".

[The General Assembly] "calls upon the Russian Federation and the United States of America to continue consultations on compliance with obligations under the INF Treaty, as well as resume a constructive dialogue on strategic issues premised on openness, mutual confidence and real opportunities for cooperation," it goes on to say.

[The General Assembly] ‘hopes that this dialogue will be conducive to further progress in reducing nuclear arms and strengthening international security and stability," the draft resolution says.

It urges all UN member states "to support efforts aimed at stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery".

[The General Assembly] "considers that the implementation of any measures undermining the purposes and the provisions of the INF Treaty also undermines global strategic stability, world peace, regional security and the promotion of further nuclear arms reduction," it stresses.

The issue of saving the INF Treaty must be put on the agenda of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, says the draft resolution.

[The General Assembly] "decided to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy fourth session the item entitled ‘Preservation of and compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty’," the resolution says.

The text was submitted to the UN delegations and the UN Secretariat, while the issue of submitting it for consideration of the First Committee that oversees issues of disarmament and international security, is considered at the moment.

Situation around INF Treaty

On October 20, US President Donald Trump said that the US will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because Russia allegedly violates it.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov described this as a dangerous step. Washington's position was criticized in Berlin and Beijing. London expressed its support for the US decision, while NATO laid the responsibility for Trump's decision on Russia, which as the Alliance alleged, violated the Treaty.

Moscow has rejected all allegations and puts forward its respective concerns about the US adherence to the INF Treaty.

The INF Treaty was concluded on December 8, 1987 and took effect on June 1, 1988. It outlawed deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000 to 5,500 kilometers) and shorter range (500 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers).

In recent years, Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of violating that treaty. Moscow categorically dismissed these charges and put forward its own counter-arguments the United States itself was responsible for being in breach of the INF treaty terms.