GENEVA, July 26. /TASS/. The US must withdraw its nuclear weapons from other countries, Russia’s delegation to a Geneva session of the Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference stated.

"We would particularly like to point to the destabilizing practice of the so-called NATO joint nuclear missions, based on the forward-deployed US nuclear weapons in Europe, that is, thousands of kilometers away from the US, which are capable of promptly hitting critical targets in Russia and its allied countries," Andrey Malyugin, deputy head of the Russian delegation, said.

"As threats coming from the West are growing and active attempts are being made to upgrade the above-mentioned capacity, this practice increases strategic risks and pushes others to take retaliatory measures," he noted. "We once again emphasize that the US must withdraw all of its nuclear weapons to its national territory and eliminate related infrastructure in Europe," the Russian diplomat stressed.

Washington’s steps "to implement similar schemes in other parts of the world" have a highly negative impact on regional and global security, he went on to say. In particular, the US and South Korea’s "nuclear planning" activities, along with calls for including Japan in the process, "are raising tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, fueling an arms race." US actions aimed "at actively deploying strategic platforms to the region, including nuclear weapons delivery vehicles, as well as plans to provide allies with systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons," add to rising tensions.

Malyugin also pointed to "Washington’s long-term policy of impairing and reshaping the arms control architecture in order to achieve its selfish goals." "We see no sense in holding dialogue with the West on strategic issues until the United States and the US-led NATO bloc, who reject the principle of equality and are reluctant to respect our security interests, reconsider their deeply hostile policy towards Russia," the diplomat concluded.

The current, second, session of the Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference is taking place in the Swiss city of Geneva between July 22 and August 2. The conference itself will be held in New York in 2026.