Russia committed to idea of nuclear weapon-free world - deputy UN envoy

UN, September 27. /TASS/. Russia is committed to building a world free of nuclear weapons, and has been taking measures to achieve this goal both unilaterally and under its agreements with United States, Russia’s deputy UN envoy said on Tuesday. "Russia is committed to the goal of creating a world free of nuclear weapons," he said. "In the past thirty years, our country has been taking a most active part in the nuclear disarmament process through deeds, not declarations. During this period, the nuclear arms race was not just stopped, it was reversed," Vladimir Safronkov said at a meeting on the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. He said that negotiations between Moscow and Washington have brought about "a complex of efficient measures of cutting and limiting nuclear stockpile," the implementation of which became "a real progress toward the nuclear-free world." "Apart from measures we took in order to implement bilateral agreements with the United States, the Russian Federation has unilaterally taken a whole range of other important measures," Safronkov said. Among those measures he aimed Russia’s move to reduce by four times its arsenal of nonstrategic nuclear weapons, which are currently non-deployed and are stored at special storage facilities with strict security regime. "Another step in this direction was the national decision to detarget Russian nuclear weapons, which are currently being maintained on a so-called path of a zero course. The role and place of nuclear arsenal in the Russian military doctrine has been decreased significantly," he said. Read more