Russia has called for the consideration of all factors that threaten strategic stability, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Lavrov said that the factors include plans to deploy weapons in space, the establishment of strategic offensive non-nuclear weapons, as well as the deployment of a unilateral global missile defense system.
"[We] cannot ignore significant misbalances in conventional weapons either, especially against the backdrop of continuing dangerous conflicts in many parts of the world," Lavrov said, adding: "We cannot talk about a 'nuclear free [zone] by turning a blind eye on these factors and their interrelations."
The U.S. administration is ready to conduct talks with Russia on further nuclear arms reductions, including non-strategic weapons, a senior State Department official said in February.
When ratifying the New START deal with Moscow in December, the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution obligating the government to start bilateral talks on cutting the TNW stockpiles - landmines, artillery shells and short-range missiles. Washington says Moscow has a larger number of these systems.
President Barack Obama said in a message to the Senate in February his country expects to hold talks with Russia on TNW within a year after the New START arms reduction treaty came into force on February 5 of this year.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in January that it is too early to discuss limiting TNW with the United States because Russia needs to see the way the U.S. fulfills its commitments under the New START.
GENEVA, March 1 (RIA Novosti)
