Russia Regrets US Avoidance Of Dialogue On Military Incidents - Deputy Foreign Minister

Moscow regrets that the United States keeps avoiding a dialogue on renewing the agreement on the prevention of military incidents, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2019) Moscow regrets that the United States keeps avoiding a dialogue on renewing the agreement on the prevention of military incidents, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday.

"To have a certain guarantee against dangerous crises, it would be ... important to renew a bilateral agreement of [19]72 on the prevention of incidents at sea and in the air above the sea ... At some point in time, we made proposals on that, there were even preliminary contacts between the sides on this. Later, because of the general worsening of the bilateral relations, we found ourselves in the situation where this work was frozen because of the United States," Ryabkov told the International Affairs magazine.

The deputy foreign minister added that Russia found it important to focus on the prevention of incidents and "to hold certain events on the de-escalation at the contact line between Russia and NATO [countries] in Europe."

"We would like the so-called structured dialogue within the OSCE, which is ongoing, to be focused on this topic ... We are looking for ways forward in a pragmatic way ... Unfortunately, there is no response," Ryabkov said.