Lavrov on Trump’s INF remarks: Plenty of Russian non-proliferation offers on the table

ASHGABAT, February 6. /TASS/. There is no shortage of Russia’s initiatives on arms control and strategic stability, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said when asked by a TASS correspondent to comment on US President Donald Trump’s remarks about the possibility of signing a new agreement to replace the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

“As for the INF Treaty, we said everything in response to the United States’ unsubstantiated accusations,” the minister stressed. “[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin outlined our stance clearly. We will provide a tit-for-tat response. The Americans suspended their participation in the treaty, and we did the same thing, which means that the agreement will be void in six months’ time.”

“Concerning further negotiations on this or other issues related to strategic stability and arms control, there is no shortage of our initiatives on those issues, which we have handed over to our US, Western and NATO counterparts,” Russia’s top diplomat pointed out.

Lavrov recalled that, since no response followed, Putin issued instructions to him and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu “to wait until our Western partners are ready to respond to the proposals that had been sent to them long ago.”

Trump earlier said the United States was ready to negotiate a different agreement to replace the INF Treaty, adding other parties, including China.