MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. The prospects for strategic dialogue with the US are unclear due to Washington’s policy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Izvestia.

"Making speculations about the prospects for strategic dialogue with the US, which was suspended by the Americans, is a thankless task. I’ll be frank: the prospects for its resumption are far from clear due to the recklessly aggressive policy towards Russia that Washington pursues. We certainly monitor some signals concerning the resumption of dialogue on issues related to strategic offensive weapons but it’s unclear what’s behind them. And anyway, talks should not be held through the media," he noted.

Ryabkov pointed out that Moscow had repeatedly reaffirmed its readiness to maintain pragmatic interaction with Washington "in order to reduce tensions and risks, prevent a dangerous escalation and an arms race, as well as to strengthen strategic stability, particularly through ensuring arms control." "We also remember well that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is not indefinite and ideally, it should be replaced with another agreement or agreements," the diplomat added. However, in his words, it remains to be seen "if the US changes its obviously destructive policy and shows readiness to build an equal dialogue," taking Russia’s security interests and concerns into account.

"As for our view of a framework for strategic dialogue and its desired outcome, it’s not a secret and it remains unchanged. Our idea is to develop a new security equation that would be based on all the factors that influence strategic stability. In order to achieve this goal, we seek to cover the entire range of offensive and defensive, nuclear and non-nuclear weapons with strategic potential," the Russian deputy foreign minister explained.