"The closest meeting will be on the margins of the opening session of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly. What is next? We will first present it to our colleagues, and then it will probably become known," Ryabkov said.
At the same time, the deputy minister noted that the Russian-US dialogue on strategic stability is not directly related to these meetings as the "Nuclear Five" format has its own agenda.
"By the way, we want to amend it and not minimize everything to nuclear risks only. Nuclear risks are important both as a topic and as a subject - this will continue to be discussed. But the agenda should be expanded, including through the work on the new review cycle of the NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons], as well as subjects related to the interaction of the group of five states, permanent members of the UN Security Council, on issues that the so-called nuclear radicals impose on the international community on the subject of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This does not apply to our bilateral topics with the United States," Ryabkov said.
The "Nuclear Five" is the informal group of the five nuclear-weapon states, namely Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the US and France. Last year, the group's behind-closed-doors meeting was held in Egypt's Cairo under the chairmanship of the US, with the participation of the countries' foreign and defense ministers.
