MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. The United States may be prepared for a conversation on the New START treaty but Moscow will not be ready to engage in dialogue until Washington changes its hostile policy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"Perhaps, they are prepared but we aren’t, because dialogue on the issue, as well as on strategic stability in general, is simply impossible unless the US changes its deeply hostile Russia policy," he pointed out in response to a TASS request to comment on a statement by White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby.
"I believe that the goal of the message is to improve the image of the US policy, particularly in the eyes of the Global South, the members of the global majority, who aren’t familiar with all the details of disarmament agreements and the processes that have taken place in this field. This is a cheap trick. If we are seriously talking about strengthening security, the anti-Russian policy first needs to be abandoned. After that, we will study the situation in a manner determined by the [Russian] president, which is what we have repeatedly explained," Ryabkov noted.
Kirby said earlier that the US was ready to resume talks on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).