GENEVA, July 30. /TASS/. Washington is getting back to a pattern of force to defend its own interests, and its policy pursues the goal of an unlimited increase in its strategic potential, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Geneva Office and other international organizations Andrei Belousov said in Geneva on Tuesday.
Speaking at a plenary meeting of the UN Conference on Disarmament, he pointed out that "the drastic change of the course is becoming more and more evident" in the US’ approaches.
"We are witnessing Washington’s return to a matrix of force for safeguarding its security interests," the Russian diplomat said. "It is being done in spite of - and sometimes against - the concept which the international community has stayed committed to over the past 50 years."
The diplomat mentioned the concept "which ensured security by lowering the level of armed confrontation through the persistent reduction of weapons."
Belousov continued that the main instrument of this new - but, in fact, the United States’ old policy - was "an unlimited increase in strategic potential, including its offensive (nuclear weapons) and defensive (anti-missile defense) parts."
Thus, the United States is seeking to gain "a huge military advantage over its military, political and economic rivals."
The diplomat pointed out that this fact might explain the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the lingering silence over the extension of the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which expires in February 2021. He named among other factors the refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and finally, that no response was heard from Washington to Moscow’s proposal to re-confirm the 1985 statement voiced by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and then US President Ronald Reagan about the inadmissibility of a nuclear war, which has no victor.
Underscoring that Russia persistently calls for constructive dialogue with the United States about security and hails the bilateral contacts that took place in recent months, Belousov emphasized that the US counterparts should work hard to convince Russia of their ability to negotiate.