Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly, this fall, called on NATO countries to undertake and begin action-oriented talks that would grant Russia reliable and long-term security guarantees against aggression and obvious preludes to aggression. Moscow wants legally binding guarantees.
Developing story by Melissa Hemingway and Micheal John
“We put forward some formulas and we are not taking them off the table, on how to start going along this path in Europe, although now we have shaped them [these formulas] in a more general and binding form in draft agreements [on security guarantees with the United States and NATO]. Nevertheless, the same applies to Asia,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a Moscow news briefing on Friday, reports the Tass news agency.
“The emergence of the US weapons in question from the east, whatever the slogans may be and whatever the pretexts that might be used, will inevitably lead to a change in our position in the context of the above-mentioned moratorium because such systems will pose a threat to us,” said Deputy Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov assuages concerns over Sino/Russian Alliance
“I do not see any activities in our relations with China, which can be perceived by any states as failing to correspond to their interests,” the senior Russian diplomat said, when asked about US-NATO concerns on the Asian track in the context of the strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing.
Russian President Putin following another summit with China President Xi, lays out a platform for stable relations with West. “The United States of America shall take measures to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and deny accession to the Alliance to the former USSR republics,” the treaty proposal says. Presidents XI and Putin discussed among other things, NATO’s belligerent rhetoric and tense situation in Europe during the talks, which are going to take place on Wednesday via video linkup, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Tuesday, according to Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Among the treaty proposal from Russia are two significant reversals in recent American activities.
“The Parties shall refrain from flying heavy bombers equipped for nuclear or non-nuclear armaments or deploying surface warships of any type, including in the framework of international organizations, military alliances or coalitions, in the areas outside national airspace and national territorial waters respectively, from where they can attack targets in the territory of the other Party,” the document reads.
“The Parties shall not train military and civilian personnel from non-nuclear countries to use nuclear weapons. The Parties shall not conduct exercises or training for general-purpose forces, that include scenarios involving the use of nuclear weapons,” the document reads.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said that Moscow wants a reply and constructive work from Washington on the draft documents.
“Support Nuclear Disarmament and Demilitarization of Space. Join Voices. Sign the petition,” urges Civil Society Partners in the ‘Voices for Peace Initiative‘.
Additional reading: 10th Review Conference, Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a timely event say activists
“The time has come to take action. The first step is a global ‘No First Use’ agreement, followed by an agreed methodology for the safe, clean, and staged dismantling of nuclear weaponry on Earth and in space,” says the ‘Voices for Peace Initiative‘ team.
During October 2021, American allies including Britain, France and Germany in Europe and Japan and Australia in the Asian Seas region urged US President Joe Biden not to alter existing US nuclear policy to include a “no first use” declaration.
“This defines a list of NPT violators,” says Geraldine Frisque, a coordinator from RINJ Women, on this project.
“America maintains its “First Strike” policy and is a threat to the world population as it interferes in the lives of most human beings,” she adds, saying this is the concern around the world that America is becoming a rogue nuclear nation.
The number of nuclear weapons in the US military’s stockpile stood at 3,750 as of September 30, 2020, according to the data released in mid 2021. At that time, mid-2021, “Increasing the transparency of states’ nuclear stockpiles is important to nonproliferation and disarmament efforts,” is what the USA State Department said in a statement. (Citing the Voices for Peace petition.)
Around China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, DPRK, and much of the world, the United States and some of its allies have placed intermediate-range nuclear warhead missiles in hundreds of locations, declaring a policy of “First Strike” if America perceives a country is doing something it does not like. Voices for Peace Initiative