WASHINGTON. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Washington thinks it is possible to interact with Moscow on arms control multilaterally, U.S. National Security Council Senior Director for Arms Control and Nonproliferation Pranay Vaddi said on Thursday.
"That all being said, there are other avenues for engagement with Russia in multilateral venues. We are going to show up to those venues, we will continue to press our priorities in furtherance of our own national interests, and we hope that Russia is willing to engage there," Vaddi said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and National Studies.
As for a bilateral dialogue on arms control, the U.S., unlike Russia, does not want this to include the issues of restraining NATO enlargement, Ukraine, or U.S. policy on Russia outside of arms control, which are regarded as priorities by Russia, he said.
"I think that they have set a pretty high bar. They've linked kind of other politics to arms control in a way that has not been done in the post-Cold War era. And as a result, we don't have a conversation," Vaddi said.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia sent the U.S. a response in writing to the latter's proposals on strategic stability late last year, saying that Moscow considers the U.S. ideas to be unacceptable.