GENEVA. March 1 (Interfax) - Russia cannot ignore the United Kingdom's and France's strategic nuclear capability and expects London and Paris to declare their preparedness for relevant negotiations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"The North Atlantic alliance has been introducing itself as a nuclear alliance increasingly more expressly and firmly in the past years, [which includes] joint nuclear missions, the validity of the Nuclear Planning Group, attempts to influence our position regarding New START [the Russian-U.S. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] through engaging all NATO states. All together, this changes the general alignment of forces," Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax.
"Taking into consideration the developments in Ukraine and around it and the openly hostile line pursued by Paris and London with regard to us, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that they possess a substantial nuclear weapons capability, hundreds of warheads and modern delivery vehicles. If they have addressed the New START aspects, they should be fully consistent and at least declare their preparedness for proper negotiations. We haven't heard this yet," he said.
All Moscow has heard from London and Paris is "only tough, negative, and laconic signals that there's nothing to talk about here," he said.
"We don't think so, we think that there is something to talk about amid what's happening. Moreover, the factor of the United Kingdom and France is becoming a crucial one," Ryabkov said.
Russia said several years ago that it was important to account for the UK's and France's nuclear capability and that the parties were approaching a period when arms control agreements should become multilateral, Ryabkov said.
"The UK's and France's strategic offensive weapons capability can no longer be factored out. Their consideration and the engagement of the two countries are becoming imperative for us," he said.