Russia Calls on US to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons Sites Abroad, Says They Violate NPT - FARS

(FNA)- The United States must bring its nuclear weapons home and dismantle infrastructure for their deployment abroad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We consider it unacceptable for NATO to maintain its 'joint nuclear missions', which contradict the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). American nuclear weapons must be returned to US territory, and the foreign infrastructure for their deployment must be eliminated," Lavrov stated, speaking to participants of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva by video on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian top diplomat recalled that the Donald Trump administration had rejected the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev Principle that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought", and urged the new administration to make a formal commitment in this area.

"We consistently stand for the need for Russia, the US and other members of the 'nuclear five' [the UK, France and China] to reaffirm the fundamental formula that there cannot be a winner in a nuclear war, and that such a war should never be unleashed. I repeated this proposal to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in our telephone conversation on 4 February," Lavrov added.

In 2019, the Trump administration scrapped the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Europe-focused agreement which prohibited the development, deployment and use of ground-based nuclear weapons in the 500-5,500 km range.

In his remarks Wednesday, Lavrov also indicated that the offer Russia made to the previous administration to reduce the fallout from the scrapping of the INF Treaty remains applicable under the new one.