Russia on Tuesday said it delayed nuclear arms control talks with the US that were set to start this week due to differences with Washington and tensions over Ukraine.
“We have encountered a situation where our American colleagues not only demonstrated a lack of desire to take note of our signals, acknowledge our priorities, but also acted in the opposite way,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.
The US and Russia were scheduled to hold talks to discuss the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty, the New START, in Cairo from November 29 to December 6. Ryabkov said that Russia will eventually propose new dates for the dialogue, but only when “the time is right.”
The talks were expected to be focused on resuming New START inspections that have been paused since March 2020 and held under the bilateral consultative commission (BCC), an implementation body established by the New START. Ryabkov claimed that Russia wanted to discuss other issues besides the inspections but that the US refused.
Ryabkov said that the US support for Ukraine also impacted the Russian decision to cancel the talks. “Naturally, the events unfolding inside and around Ukraine in this case impact that,” he said.
