MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - There is no point in strategic arms control negotiations with the United States without counting the French and British nuclear arsenals that are de facto controlled by Washington, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"From our point of view, of course, the nuclear arsenals of both France and the United Kingdom could be described as de facto controlled by the United States. So any talks with America would be absolutely pointless without counting these two arsenals. This is the conceptual approach to what is happening," Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
Journalists asked Peskov to comment on a statement by a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson who said that a key condition which would allow Paris to take part in strategic arms control talks was a significant reduction in the gap between the arsenals of the two major nuclear powers and the French arsenal.