Russia accuses US of undermining global strategic stability

Moscow, Oct 20 (IANS) The US and its allies attempted to gain military advantage and use force to reach "egoistic geopolitical goals", which will seriously undermine global strategic stability, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

"The US and its allies in Europe, the Asia-Pacific and other regions seek to create a global missile defense system and move its elements closer to Russian borders," he said at the Moscow 2017 Non-Proliferation Conference, Xinhua news agency reported.

Russia's calls for joint work on containing such risks in Europe remain unanswered, he said.

Moscow is also monitoring with concern the implementation of plans to modernize nuclear weapons deployed in Europe, Lavrov said.

The move, together with efforts of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries to adopt dual-use delivery vehicles fit for conventional and nuclear munitions, could lower the threshold of using nuclear weapons, he said.

He said that Russia has consistently demanded the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons to its homeland and the cessation of NATO training of non-nuclear countries to use nuclear weapons.

Moscow has also repeatedly pledged its commitment to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, but "Washington kept on advancing groundless accusations that Russia violated it," Lavrov said.

"This attitude is not helping solve the problems with the treaty," he said.

The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 by the former Soviet Union and the US to ban the development, deployment and testing of ground-launched ballistic or cruise missiles with ranges between 483 km to 5,472 km.

Moscow and Washington have repeatedly accused each other of violating the treaty.