MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Washington does not rule out further discussing the issue of intermediate-and shorter-range missiles but wants this dialogue to be contingent on some actions by Russia on its territory regarding the crisis in Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at the Valdai Discussion Club on Wednesday.
"With regard to the post-INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]. Washington now does not exclude returning to the discussion of this issue but for starters they would like to better understand the substance of our approach. Even this stance suggests that we should take some actions on our territory relative to Ukraine," the senior Russian diplomat said.
Moscow took note of the statement made at the Geneva talks that the United States had no intention of creating land-based nuclear-tipped intermediate-and shorter-range missiles, Ryabkov said.
"We heard calls to return to the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) and agree on updating the Vienna document on confidence-building measures. We asked the Americans all these questions and they gave us all these answers," he added.
"I would like to stress that with all the importance of this package of issues, with all the significance that we have traditionally placed and continue placing on the issues of both nuclear and conventional armaments, all these matters are of secondary, if not to say, peripheral importance in the current situation," the high-ranking Russian diplomat stressed.
"First and foremost, we need legally binding guarantees of NATO’s non-expansion, the guarantees of the alliance’s return to the borders of 1997 and a reliable solution to the issue of the non-deployment of strike systems along our borders. The rest depends on progress along these lines," he pointed out.
The United States suspended its commitments under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on February 2, 2019, citing Russia’s alleged violation of the pact. Washington put forward these accusations in July 2014, for the first time. According to the US administration, Russia violated the terms of the INF treaty by creating the 9M729 missile. Moscow dismissed these accusations and laid counter-claims, pointing, in particular, to US missile defense system elements being deployed in Europe. The INF Treaty ceased to exist in August 2019.