MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov brushed aside reported attempts by U.S. Republican Senators to have changes made to New START, the 2010 Russian-U.S. treaty on strategic nuclear weapons reductions, and said the accord is unchangeable.
"I can just emphasize that the [treaty], in our view, is completely in line with the national interests of Russia and the U.S. It cannot be 'reopened' and become a subject of new negotiations," Lavrov told Interfax.
If put into force, New START would "help promote strategic stability, international security, the nuclear weapons nonproliferation regime, and a more extensive process of multilateral nuclear disarmament," he said.
"This is not just our own opinion - dozens of states, including NATO allies of the United States, have called for ratification [of the New START]. In effect, we can speak of an international consensus in support of this agreement," the minister said.
Moscow is aware of problems U.S. President Barack Obama has come up against in trying to put the treaty through the Senate, Lavrov said.
"We can also see how actively members of the administration are working in pressing for the ratification of the treaty by the American legislators. We hope that this work will be successful and that the Senators will show a responsible approach by supporting it [New START]. However, we are not in any way going to interfere in the process of considering the treaty on Capitol Hill [in the Senate] - that is a U.S. domestic policy issue," the minister said.