Lavrov: Russia is ready to reduce nuclear risks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country is ready to reduce the risks of nuclear escalation, but believes that “it takes two to tango.” About this he informed in an interview with the Arguments and Facts newspaper.

“The task of diplomacy is to search for and develop peaceful, political and diplomatic ways to resolve interstate contradictions and conflicts. Including, of course, in relations between nuclear powers. And this is where the problem arises, which is most accurately described by the already rather hackneyed, but successful expression – “it takes two to tango,” the minister said.

He noted that Russia has repeatedly proposed “constructive undertakings” and “acted with pragmatic, non-politicized” initiatives to resolve problems in the world, for example, the proposal put forward in 2021 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to which Russia is provided with legal guarantees of security in the western direction.

“However, in Washington and Brussels they either ignored us or the reaction was negative,” Lavrov said. According to him, this was the cause of the crisis in Ukraine. The minister added that the country is also open to contacts on an equal basis and with the obligatory consideration of its interests “in order to improve the situation in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic” and “long-term reduction of nuclear risks.”

April 3 with the inadmissibility of unleashing a nuclear war spoke in the White House – they agreed with Lavrov’s words that “a nuclear war should not be waged and a nuclear war cannot be won.”

At the beginning of December 2022 Lavrov named there is a huge risk that a non-nuclear clash between nuclear powers will escalate into a nuclear war. Then he recalled the joint statement of Russia and the United States of June 2021, which emphasized the inadmissibility of unleashing such a war.

On February 21, Putin announced Russia’s unilateral suspension of participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START III), which was concluded between the United States and Russia in 2010 and extended in 2021 for another five years. Then the president said that Russia was aware that the Kiev regime was attempting to strike at strategic aviation bases and the drones used for this “were equipped and modernized with the assistance of NATO specialists.”