MOSCOW. May 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will keep its nuclear triad including ground, aerial and naval components in spite of planned radical reduction of strategic offensive weapons, First Deputy Chief-of-Staff Colonel General Yuri Baluyevsky told reporters in Moscow on Saturday.
"The nuclear triad will be maintained with the parameters that correspond to national security interests of the country," Baluyevsky said.
Responding to questions from Interfax-Military News Agency Baluyevsky said he was sure that Russian-U.S. negotiations on strategic stability issues would continue after the parties signed a treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons. "I think that I will soon receive an order from the defense minister and he will receive an order from the Russian president to continue negotiations with the American party on the implementation of the treaty's provisions. We are bound to go together with the United States regardless of disaccords that we have had, have and will have," Baluyevsky stressed.
According to him, "the parties have practically finalized the text of the treaty which is legally binding and subject to ratification by parliaments of both nations." "The document is a result of compromise which suits both parties," he said.