MOSCOW – The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that internationalsecurity and stability will be further undermined after a draft resolutionin support to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) wasrejected in a United Nations vote.
“A new blow was dealt to the architecture of international security andstability. Now, with the collapse of the INF Treaty, several regions of theworld can be plunged into an arms race or even into direct confrontation,”the ministry said on its website.
On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted down a resolution introduced byRussia last week in support of the preservation of the INF Treaty.
The ministry said the results of the voting “cannot but causedisappointment,” noting that many countries well aware of the importance ofthe arms control agreement voted against it.
“With their connivance or thoughtless conciliation, these countries defacto gave their blessings to Washington to destroy the treaty,” theministry said.
Read Top Stories
In October, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would pull out ofthe INF Treaty on account of Russia’s alleged breach of the agreement,which Moscow has repeatedly denied.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against a collapse ofthe international arms deterrence system, which could aggravate the threatof a global nuclear catastrophe.
The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 between the Soviet Union and the UnitedStates on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.The deal marked the first-ever pact reached by Washington and Moscow onnuclear disarmament and a major step forward in restricting arms race.
