MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia has invited the United States to discuss all issues of strategic stability without exception, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RBC on Friday.
"We suggested taking to the negotiating table all topics that affect strategic stability and legitimate interests of negotiating parties," the minister said.
Lavrov also pointed at the importance of Moscow and Washington’s intentions to promote strategic stability talks in the context of new reality.
"The situation has changed drastically since 2010: both the United States and Russia obtained new weapons, and some of them fall under the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START). We spoke about it last year, saying they must be taken into account. Other weapons do not fall under the treaty’s provisions due to their physical characteristics, as they are based on totally different principles," the minister said.
"Hypersonic [weapons] partially fall under New START, if we speak about ballistic missiles. <...> Now we need to integrate those kinds of weapons into the treaty and see how it will be verified," he continued. "Some [weapons] do not fall under the treaty, [for example] the United States have the Prompt Global Strike concept, which, by the way, is a non-nuclear one."
According to Russia’s top diplomat, a plan of organizing such talks was submitted to Washington back in October, but the previous US administration of Donald Trump left it unanswered. The issue was once again raised during talks with the newly-appointed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"We would to have them [talks] resumed, so that the new administration of Joe Biden could inform us about its opinion. We have an understanding that now they need to settle a bit at the White House and the Department of State. I hope it won’t take too much time," he added.
Format of multilateral talks
At the same time, Lavrov stressed that the possible format of multilateral talks on strategic stability should not erase the existing agreements between Russia and the United States.
Speaking about turning the talks on strategic stability into a multilateral process, Lavrov said there should be a voluntary consent on the part of all those who are invited, primarily the five nuclear powers.
He went on to say that Russia had no plans to "persuade China" to join the talks.
"We respect Beijing’s stance. They want either to catch up with us or to have our [arsenals] reduced to their level before starting any talks," he continued. "However <…> if this process is multilateral, we cannot do without the United Kingdom and France.".