Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, CIS Ambassadors Discuss Disarmament - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2019) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov discussed on Tuesday disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control with envoys from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), among rising tensions between Moscow and Washington over both powers' dismantlement of nuclear arms control architecture, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

Moscow and Washington this year decided to suspend their participation in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which secured nuclear arms control architecture between the two powers. Earlier in July, Marc Finaud, the head of Arms Proliferation at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, said that Europe faced the threat of a nuclear war unless the two powers were able to come up with a new arms control agreement.

"A series of current international and regional matters were discussed [by Ryabkov and the envoys], including disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ryabkov will meet with US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson and US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in Geneva between July 17-18 to discuss US-Russian strategic stability among further uncertainty looming over the renewal of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in 19 months.