MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. There is no reason to state a degradation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at this moment, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview for Kommersant.
"The review process is important on its own. A presence or absence of an outcome document at a conference is significant, of course, but not critical. Therefore, I do not believe that there is a reason to state a degradation of the non-proliferation regime at this moment," he said.
The high-ranking diplomat noted the presence of issues in the NPT context that are difficult to resolve, and pointed out that "there are rather technical, but nevertheless significant moments, such as the reform of the system of guarantees, carried out by the IAEA Secretariat, which raises questions."
"There are certain non-proliferation challenges of regional nature that everyone is also well aware of. But these are working moments," he added.
According to Ryabkov, the Non-Proliferation Treaty will serve the "case of international security and stability in the future."
"Its very existence and the work within its framework is a rather important signal about the presence of common sense in the current stormy sea of international relations, where many things are difficult to predict, and where topics and stories that were considered axioms just recently, are being challenged now," the high-ranking diplomat concluded.