Russia welcomes the administration of new US President Joe Biden not making China participation a mandatory condition for arms control talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2021) Russia welcomes the administration of new US President Joe Biden not making China participation a mandatory condition for arms control talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday.
"As for the Chinese factor, in one of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's first public speeches, China came up in the context of arms control, but we did not see in the pitch from the US side after the change of power such a rigid linkage of the entire future in this area to the participation of the People's Republic of China in the relevant dialogues or triangular or multilateral processes. This fact can be welcomed," Ryabkov said at a press conference, adding that If the US is interested in China joining the talks, it should bring that up with Beijing.
The diplomat clarified that it does not mean that Russia is abandoning its support for shifting to multilateral arms control frameworks as Moscow recognizes the sovereign right of each country to decide in which agreements or talks it wishes to participate.
"Our priority would be to include, first and foremost, the United Kingdom and France as the closest allies of the United States with nuclear capabilities that we cannot ignore either quantitatively or qualitatively," Ryabkov added.
Earlier in the month, the United States and Russia agreed to extend the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for five more years without any renegotiation of its terms. The treaty is now set to expire on February 5, 2026. It is currently the only arms control agreement between two countries that is still in force.
