Russia’s Lavrov, Germany’s Maas talk gas pipeline, Ukraine, arms control in Moscow
Russia’s attempts at preserving the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) were rejected “bluntly enough” by the US, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a joint press conference with his German colleague Heiko Maas on Friday.
The two diplomats talked behind closed doors for a whole hour, according to DW’s Moscow correspondent Emily Sherwin.
“When President Trump announced he would exit the deal in October, our American colleagues in the area of arms control declared that this decision was final and irreversible and that it was ‘not an invitation to dialogue’,” Lavrov said.
The 1987 INF accord eliminated nuclear and conventional missiles deployed by the US and the Soviet Union in Europe. Last year, Washington pledged to withdraw from it if Russia did not modify its weapon systems by 2 February 2019.
US says the ‘clock is ticking’
Ahead of the Friday meeting, Maas told the Interfax news agency that Russia could save the INF if it got rid of its 9M729 cruise missile, which the US claims violates the accord. At the press conference, however, Lavrov said that the missile issue was “merely an excuse to leave the deal.”
Read more: Russia denies it is violating nuclear arms treaty
Maas responded that the deal could still be salvaged and urged Russia to eliminate the disputed missile, but also said that the Cold War-era accords were not “sufficient” for controlling modern arms such as cyber threats and autonomous weapons systems on a global level.
“We want all of these tendencies, all of these developments to become the subject of a new architecture of weapons control,” Maas said. “This is why we will hold a conference in Berlin as early as March which would be focused on these topics.”
Earlier on Friday, US representative Andrea Thompson rejected the claims that the US was already determined to leave the INF.
“These claims have nothing to do with reality,” she told the Kommersant paper. “We have given Russia 60 days and the clock keeps on ticking.”
Europe, not US to decide on ‘European energy policy’
Commenting on Washington’s anger over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany, Maas said that “questions of European energy policy must be decided in Europe, not in the US.”
“To impose unilateral sanctions against Nord Stream 2 is certainly not the way to go,” Maas said.
Kerch Strait still problematic
On the topic of Ukraine, Lavrov said that there was “no doubt” that the Kerch Strait incident was staged by Kyiv to ratchet up the tension ahead of the presidential election in March, and that Berlin and Paris were aware of that.
“But, seeing how they have decided long ago that they would support Kyiv in pretty much everything it does, there is not much we can do about it.”
Maas restated the calls for the 24 sailors to be released.
The foreign minister also said that Germany and France had offered to monitor the stretch of water to enable ships’ movement. Lavrov, meanwhile, said that Russia had agreed to this a month ago, but that observers were not yet in place. Maas, who will travel on to Kyiv later on Friday, wanted further talks on the matter with Ukraine.
With Germany taking up a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council, Maas also said that Berlin would need to coordinate closer with Moscow.
“Germany will face more responsibility internationally,” Maas said. “We want to rise up to this responsibility.”
dj/msh (dpa, AFP, Reuters, Interfax)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/russia-s-lavrov-germany-s-maas-talk-gas-pipeline-ukraine-arms-control-in-moscow/a-47133822