Russia cannot have a dialogue with the US on new Russian hypersonic weapons without a thorough discussion of US hypersonic projects, its plans to create a global anti-missile system and to deploy weapons in space, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik on Friday, stressing that this was an indisputable precondition of the dialogue.
“As for some of our new systems, which Americans have been recently calling ‘exotic’, we are not trying to escape dialogue. However, I want to stress that we will be discussing these systems in a vacuum, this is not just a topic for discussion that does not depend on other circumstances. On the contrary, there is a strict precondition for the beginning of this dialogue and it cannot be canceled: the US’ agreement to discuss US programs and projects that we are concerned over,” Ryabkov said.
The Russian diplomat, meanwhile, expressed Moscow’s concern over the US’ plans to create a global anti-missile system, to deploy weapons in space, as well as some plans related to hypersonic arms.
“We cannot ignore these projects of the US military, since we see them as highly destabilizing in terms of the strategic sphere,” Ryabkov said.
Russia believes that the strategic stability dialogue with the US can only be complex, and is firmly committed to being guided exclusively by the goal of ensuring the national security, he noted.
The United States withdrew from the INF Treaty in August 2019 after formally suspending its INF obligations in February and triggering a six-month withdrawal process.
Washington has repeatedly accused Russia of violating the military pact by developing advanced ballistic and hypersonic delivery systems and modernizing its inventory. Russia has denied all allegations.
Source: Sputnik
