Gottemyuller: State Department is puzzled by Lavrov's remarks on the NPT
"Throughout the existence of the NPT, as well as including the period of its preparation at the end of 1960-s," neither the USSR nor the Russian Federation did not raise the question in this way, Gottemoeller said at a press conference.
“The issue of nuclear weapons that the US is deploying as part of its extended deterrence obligations to protect NATO allies has never been mentioned as a violation of the NPT by either the Soviet Union or Russia until now,” she said. “Therefore we are puzzled.”
According to a State Department spokesman, "the question of the availability of American nuclear weapons in Europe was, of course, discussed during the negotiation of the NPT, and the archives clearly show that the United States clearly communicated its arguments to the USSR."
She explained that “American tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are not shared in one way or another with NATO allies, they actually remain under the operational control of the United States,” and therefore “there is absolutely no violation of the obligations of non-nuclear states in which the US tactical nuclear forces are located” under the Treaty.
“I have to say what confuses why this issue has arisen now,” the Under-Secretary of State said. “The United States intends to state clearly and unambiguously its arguments about Russia regarding both the period of the development of the NPT and its implementation, as well as their bewilderment about why this question arises now.”
The newspaper reminds that on Wednesday, Sergey Lavrov said that Washington was violating the provisions of the NPT, which expressed the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons "on the territory of five European states."
“This is a very serious risk for the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and we do not believe that the security of our country should be ensured by transferring our nuclear arsenals somewhere else,” the Foreign Minister noted.
- korotchenko.info
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