Russia Invited New US Administration To Proclaim Inadmissibility Of Nuclear War - Lavrov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th February, 2021) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that he had proposed, in his recent phone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that Russia and the United States make a statement on inadmissibility of a nuclear war.

Moscow has repeatedly urged Washington to renew the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev Principle, which states that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." However, the previous US administration, headed by ex-President Donald Trump, kept refusing to do so for over two years.

"We consistently stand out for the need for Russia, the US and other participants of the 'nuclear five' to reaffirm the fundamental formula that there cannot be a winner in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed.

I repeated this proposal to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in our phone conversation that was held on February 4," Lavrov said in his videoaddress at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

The Russian minister also stressed that ensuring restraint in the missile sphere remained a priority in light of termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

"Our offer remains in force: we will not deploy such ground-based missiles in regions where similar US-produced missiles are not deployed. We call on NATO states to take similar reciprocal steps. Our exact proposals on mutual verification measures are well known," Lavrov went on to say.