Ryabkov Insists, U.S. Not ‘Ready’ To Hold Negotiations on Security Assurances

Dec. 10, 2022 (EIRNS)—Russian diplomats continued to express concerns about the lack of strategic stability discussions between the U.S. and Russia, yesterday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters at the Valdai Club yesterday that the U.S. is not ready to hold negotiations on security assurances for Russia. “No, the U.S. is not ready for such negotiations. They will not be holding talks on security guarantees for the Russian Federation,” he said, reported TASS. According to Ryabkov, the United States “is busy with something completely different.”

Nevertheless, Russia remains ready for dialogue once the U.S. shows common sense concerning security assurances, he said. “Should this stance reveal any hint, any shade of common sense, any willingness of Washington, if not to step in the same water, but at least to remember what the temperature of that water was when they were stepping into it, we will be ready,” the deputy foreign minister said.

As for New START, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov insisted that Russia is not seeking to disrupt the treaty despite its postponement of the talks in Cairo, last week. “Our decision ... doesn’t aim at disrupting the agreement. On the contrary, it aims to make the Americans understand the essence of what they do, the violations that they make, so they fully comply with the terms of that treaty,” he said during an interview on Rossiya 24 TV. Antonov said Moscow still believes the New START Treaty meets the national interests of both Russia and the U.S. and is also an “important tool to ensure predictability and prevention of an arms race.”

“I don’t see anything positive, not even a hint to anything positive in Russian-U.S. relations. No dialogue on strategic stability is maintained. It should be admitted,” Antonov continued. This is a result of Washington’s Russophobic policy, he declared. It was Washington that scaled down dialogue in February and embarked on the course of abandoning any serious and professional conversation with Russia, which is committed to paper in its doctrinal documents.