MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Russia does not confine itself to cooperation solely with the United States regarding arms control, as Moscow has other countries to conduct such a dialog with, besides Washington, Vladimir Yermakov, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, said in an interview with TASS.

Yermakov said that a considerable share of arms-control cooperation is conducted in a variety of multilateral forms.

"Russia and other countries taking part in such formats have others to interact with apart from the United States," he said.

According to the diplomat, it is correct to talk about a broader sphere consisting of three parts, namely the arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation system.

"Even if we try to speculatively single out arms control from the above triad, we are by no means solely confined to the schemes linked to relations with the United States. As they say, life is much richer," Yermakov said.

However, as the senior Russian diplomat said, Washington, despite its "generally destructive policy, still remains a crucial player within the mechanisms of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation," which is taken into account by the other participants.

"The treaty and conventional frameworks, as well as relevant multilateral platforms, are, as a rule, actively functioning bodies, whose viability should be constantly maintained in practice. This is what we do on a daily basis. In addition, we interact in different configurations with all the countries that take an interest in talking about arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, based on the principles of true multilateralism, equality and mutual respect for other parties’ interests," he said.

The diplomat added that the current agreements regulate, restrict or prohibit the development, use, production, stockpiling and transfer of some categories of weapons, "both conventional and weapons of mass destruction."

"The arms control issue is also on the agenda of the main UN bodies, primarily the First Committee of the [UN] General Assembly, which is also known as the ‘disarmament’ committee. There are other multilateral forums as well," Yermakov said.