UNITED NATIONS, October 4. /TASS/. Russia is calling on the United States and its allies to pledge they will not be the first to deploy systems that were previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), the director of the Foreign Ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control, Vladimir Yermakov, said in a statement, made public at a meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly. The statement was read by the department’s deputy chief Konstantin Vorontsov.
"The US activity in creating and deploying global missile defense systems in various regions of the world, in combination with building up the potential of high accuracy non-nuclear weapons capable of solving strategic tasks remains a negative factor fraught with significant risks for strategic stability," Yermakov said. "In violation of obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NATO goes ahead with the practice of joint nuclear missions involving non-nuclear European countries on whose territory US nuclear bombs are deployed. Destabilizing modernization of these weapons and their delivery vehicles is being carried out. We have repeatedly stressed the need for returning US nuclear weapons to the national territory of the United States, eliminating the infrastructure for its deployment in Europe and curtailing joint nuclear missions."
"The termination of the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles as a result of the United States’ pullout has produced a situation where in terms of international nuclear missile disarmament agreements the world has been thrown back by more than 30 years," Yermakov said. "We are urging Washington and its allies to display responsibility and assume, on the basis of reciprocity, obligations similar to those assumed by Russia, not to be the first to deploy systems previously banned under the INF Treaty."