The United States and Russia have failed to make some possible progress in their dialogues held on Thursday over a dispute on the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the TASS agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.
According to Reuters news reports, Ryabkov’s remarks come after he held talks the US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security head Andrea Thompson in Beijing, the capital of China, on the sidelines of a nuclear weapons meet.
Meanwhile, Moscow slammed Washington over its 60-day ultimatum for Russia’s compliance with the 1987 INF treaty, further calling it a “game made to cover up their domestic decision to withdraw”.
Ryabkov was quoted by Sputnik as saying: “The United States imposed a 60-day period during which we had to fulfill their ultimatum. I conclude that the United States was not expecting any decision and all this was a game made to cover their domestic decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty.”
Ryabkov added saying Washington was standing at a “destructive” position on the INF Treaty. He said there might be the suspension of the US obligations under the pact this weekend.
The US President Donald Trump had announced, last year’s October, that Washington has planned to withdraw from the INF Treaty, and following this the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo had issued a 60-day ultimatum to Moscow for their compliances to the pact, failing which Washington would continue to withdraw from the pact on February 2.
The INF Treaty was signed by former Soviet Union head Mikhail Gorbachev and former USA president Ronald Reagan in order to limit the arms race between the two nations.