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Washington’s anti-Russia policy makes strategic stability talks impossible — diplomat

Sergey Ryabkov pointed out that such a conversation should be equal and based on an attentive and respectful approach to Russia’s position

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. Moscow is open to holding a strategic stability dialogue with Washington but US policies make it impossible to continue meetings on the matter, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS.

According to him, the US has blocked all those avenues of dialogue that had existed for many years. "We aren’t going to stand still, demonstrating interest in dialogue with the US on strategic stability or any other issue for the simple reason that its policy is deeply hostile to Russia," the deputy foreign minister stressed. "However, I think everyone in Washington has heard the [Russian] president’s statement at his inauguration ceremony that we are open to dialogue," Ryabkov added.

He pointed out that such a conversation should be equal and based on an attentive and respectful approach to Russia’s position. "The situation is not like that at all at the moment; it’s just the opposite," the senior diplomat noted. "We don’t see any reason to restore those channels and platforms until tangible changes in this policy take place," he said.

The deputy foreign minister emphasized that Russian and US officials now talk only on peripheral issues. "It largely concerns the operation of diplomatic facilities, humanitarian cases, delegation exchanges and the trips of certain groups to some events. That’s all," the diplomat concluded.

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