Moscow addressed its
partners with a proposal for discussing all INF Treaty-related issues within
the Russia-NATO Council earlier
MILAN, December 7. /TASS/.
The European countries must influence the United States for the sake of
preserving the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov told a news conference following a meeting of the OSCE foreign
ministers on Friday.
"My
counterparts, including Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, have expressed
concern over this situation [the United States’ pullout from the INF Treaty].
If they are really concerned, then they must probably influence their ally -
the United States - to persuade the Americans to come to the negotiating table
and start discussing the issue in a concrete way, and not accuse us
groundlessly across the Atlantic," Lavrov said. "We are prepared for
such a discussion."
He recalled that
Moscow had addressed its partners with a proposal for discussing all INF
Treaty-related issues within the Russia-NATO Council, but the alliance’s
member-states refused to do that.
"We suggested
the INF Treaty issue be considered by the Russia-NATO Council," Lavrov
said. "Our NATO counterparts found that not suitable. Incidentally, they
had plugged all channels of communication between Russian and NATO military. It
is very hard to remain in such a position, if you wish to be understood
well.".
Source: ITAR-TASS
08-12-2018
