Published 10-09-2012, 07:49
Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has ruled out the possibility of
Russia's unilateral nuclear disarmament.
"We
will not take any unilateral steps in that sphere. There must be a balance;
otherwise that would be irresponsible as regards national security," he
said in an interview with Interfax.
Nuclear potentials of other states must be taken into account in the
disarmament process, the diplomat said.
"This is not just a necessity. It is imperative. We will not take further
steps without their account," he said.
The estimation of potentials of the countries unaffiliated to the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a difficult task, he said.
"To call a spade a spade, there is no unified approach to the reckoning of
these potentials in our discussion. Being adherent to NPT commitments,
including Article six covering nuclear disarmament, Russia will be doing
that," he said.
Earlier the Soviet and U.S. potentials were much bigger than those of third
countries, but things change, the diplomat said.
"When tens of thousands of warheads existed amidst the Cold War, the
significance of nuclear potentials of the states, which were much smaller than
the arsenals of the two super powers, was clearly much smaller. To call a spade
a spade, those potentials were immaterial in the 1970s-1980s," Ryabkov
said.
"In recent years, due to many factors, including the implementation of a
number of bilateral agreements by Moscow and Washington, we have reached levels
of warheads and delivery vehicles, which still exceed the armaments stock andpotential of other nuclear countries but are
already different," he said.
The global balance of forces is a combination of numerous factors, the deputy
minister said.
"The significance of armaments and technologies of missile defense and space deployment grows. Naturally, we cannot overlook the U.S. prospectivepotential of a global flash strike of conventional warheads. I would not even mention conventional armaments, the sphere of big misbalances. The interrelation of these factors is obvious. We will be simply unable to progress without a comprehensive solution of technological breakthrough problems, certain political decisions," Ryabkov said.
Interfax
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