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Russia cannot make unilateral concessions to US on inspections under START — diplomat

Sergey Ryabkov hopes that dialogue on this topic will be continued

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. Moscow cannot make unilateral concessions to Washington on the issue of inspections under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), and hope that dialogue on this topic will be continued, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Monday.

"Russia continues dialogue on the START Treaty <…>. There problems there and these problems are linked with the fact that the United States tries to unilaterally inspect our facilities that are subject to such things under the START treaty. But we cannot make unilateral concessions to Washington. We should act strictly on the parity basis and we want our possibilities for such inspections on the American territory be safely guaranteed," he said in an interview with Russia’s TV Channel One.

"Let us hope that common sense will get the upper hand in this sphere and I hope dialogue on this topic will be continued," he said, adding that contacts between the United States and Russia "are maintained on various matters."

"This work has a systemic character and I think that if the US side doesn’t want to derail everything that has remained of arms control we have had in recent decades, we will be able to preserve at least elements of this architecture," he noted.