FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Lavrov Discusses Russian Response to Bolton Visit, U.S. Decision To Pull Out of INF Treaty

Oct. 28, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rossiya 1 TV today that, in Putin’s meeting last week with U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton,

“President Vladimir Putin had said very clearly that we understand that this is their decision [to pull out of the INF Treaty], and there is no way we can influence it. We have voiced our reasons and hope that they kept them in mind when making their decision,”

he said.

Lavrov further said that Europe is nervous about the U.S. decision. “We see the reaction. This decision has made the Europeans nervous,” he said, and that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had told him about that in a telephone conversation, according to TASS.

Lavrov continued:

“Now, many in NATO say that NATO’s members are to be consulted with, while taking a decision about the INF Treaty’s future. I don’t know how the North Atlantic alliance is going to tackle this issue, but at least John Bolton was quite straight when saying that the United States is primarily focused on the Asian direction where it wants to compensate for the unfair lack of intermediate- and short-range weapons,”

Lavrov said. “There are questions, especially to the Americans who change their position too frequently.”

“The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty has vanished and all our attempts to establish any reasonable dialogue with the United States and NATO amid the lack of the agreement have not found an echo, and the INF Treaty will soon disappear while the fate of the New START Treaty is unclear,”

Lavrov said. He said that Putin and Bolton had agreed on the importance of holding a bilateral dialogue on all issues related to strategic security.