UNITED NATIONS, October 16. /TASS/. The US attempted to disrupt Moscow’s coordination of the Nuclear Five (P5) group, having failed to issue visas to several Russian experts for a New York meeting, Vladimir Yermakov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, said.
"A Nuclear Five event, which was agreed by all member states to take place as usual in New York on the sidelines of a meeting of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee during its 78th session, was in danger of being canceled due to Washington’s outrageous and completely unacceptable behavior, namely its failure to issue visas to Russian experts. As a result, the team we sent to the P5 event lost two diplomats, including the delegation’s head. We view it as a deliberate attempt by the US to disrupt Russia’s coordination, which happened right after we had taken up this role in the group," Yermakov said in an interview with Russian journalists.
"It seems that someone in Washington did not like the fact that we had raised the need to adjust the work of the P5, which had shifted towards focusing on US priorities during the US tenure as coordinator," Yermakov stressed.
According to him, Moscow did not allow the US to disrupt the first meeting under Russian coordination despite the obstacles created by Washington. "We held the first event on the UN platform as planned, only reducing its status to a working one," the Russian diplomat explained. "The debate was dedicated to the parameters of the five-member group’s work for the duration of our term. The parties exchanged views on the issue. We notified our colleagues about the approaches we intend to pursue on this platform," he added.
The informal group of the five countries possessing nuclear weapons includes Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Russia took over the group’s chairmanship from the US in August.