Moscow Sees No Signals That US Ready to Resume Talks With Russia on Strategic Stability

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - There are no signals that the United States is ready to resume negotiations with Russia on strategic stability, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

"This issue depends entirely on the choice that Washington will make. We had neither before, nor after the decision to postpone the session of the bilateral consultative commission [on New START] seen any signals, signs that the American side is showing interest in resuming such a dialogue," Ryabkov said.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik the meeting of the Russian-US bilateral consultative commission on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in Cairo, scheduled for November 29 to December 6, will not take place, and will be postponed to a later date.

"I emphasize that this is not a cancellation, but a postponement. After some time, we will offer the Americans new dates. But it will not happen instantly," Ryabkov stressed..

It is unlikely that the consultations will take place before the end of the year, the Russian diplomat added.

"And now it is premature to say how and when we will make these new proposals and what time period we will ultimately focus on," he said, noting that there will be a pause before the next meeting.

The diplomat added that the US wanted to discuss only the issue of resuming inspections at the meeting while other issues were a priority for Moscow.

"We saw, up to the moment when the postponement of the session was announced and after it became public, the focus by the Americans exclusively on the topic of resuming inspections under the New START. Meanwhile, for us, the priority has been and remains the solution of other issues," Ryabkov told reporters.

ATLANTIC OCEAN (August 31, 2016) An unarmed Trident II D5 missile launches from the Ohio-class fleet ballistic-missile submarine USS Maryland (SSBN 738) off the coast of Florida. The test launch was part of the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs demonstration and shakedown operation certification process

© Flickr / National Museum of the U.S. Navy

The deputy foreign minister also said that Moscow did not see any will of the United States to move forward in solving problems on the topic of Washington's way of counting toward the aggregate limit provided for in the agreement.

"We have repeatedly explained our position and the essence of our claims to Washington: against the background of deep disagreements — not just in our priorities, but in our values also — we did not see the slightest will from the American side to move further in this direction. Although we have made some progress earlier, we have made some progress in finding mutual understanding on the subject of counting [limits]," Ryabkov said.

Additionally, Russia and the US failed to agree on a program of the consultations, he noted.

Signed in 2010, the New START is a nuclear arms reduction deal between Russia and the US, which aims at halving the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers. It was set to expire last year, but Moscow and Washington were able to agree on prolonging the accord for five more years without any renegotiation of its terms.