MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Moscow calls on Washington to jointly tackle the issue related to the modernization of US strategic delivery vehicles in accordance with the New START Treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Moscow Conference on International Security on Thursday.

"We have honored all our commitments under the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms and call on the US, in accordance with the procedures provided for by that treaty, to jointly address the issues related to the modernization of part of some US strategic delivery vehicles," he said.

Dialogue between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, including on strategic stability, should not get stuck in political intrigues and bureaucracy, he went on.

Moscow favors extensive dialogue on the current major issues, including support for strategic stability, he said. "The Russian and US presidents talked about it over the phone on March 20. I wouldn’t like the two leaders’ understanding of the particular importance of this issue to be mired in bureaucratic games or be a hostage to political intrigues," Lavrov stressed.

Trump has supported better relations with Russia since his inauguration; however, relations between Moscow and Washington have been deteriorating during the past year. The US repeatedly introduced packages of sanctions on Russia and expelled Russian diplomats twice during Trump’s presidency. In addition, the Russian consulates general in San Francisco (California) and Seattle (Washington) were closed.

The two leaders haven’t had a full-fledged meeting so far, but only twice talked on the sidelines of summits in 2017: at the APEC summit in Da Nang and at the G20 summit in Hamburg. In a telephone conversation earlier, Trump suggested Putin holding a meeting and named the White House among possible venues.

West's unilateral steps

Defiant unilateral steps made by the West and led by the US are leading to dangerous global imbalance, Lavrov said. 

"The global situation continues to deteriorate despite all our efforts. The main reason for it are ongoing unilateral steps by the West led by the US that in many cases have a defiant and destructive character and are leading to dangerous imbalance of global management mechanisms," he stressed.

"Washington, London and other Western capitals have failed to draw conclusions from the tragedies in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine," Lavrov noted.