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AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
WASHINGTON, June 28 – RIA Novosti, Tatyana Kalmykova. The US believes it is important to hold dialogue with Russia on strategic stability, they want to involve officials from various departments, said in an interview with RIA Novosti the special assistant to the U.S. President and senior Director for non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the national security Council, the White house Christopher Ford.
Ford said that the dialogue with Moscow on strategic stability “definitely” important.
Answering the question, at what level will be the dialogue, a senior administration official suggested that “it will be interdepartmental discussions.”
“I personally believe that it is important to have a different mix of people at the negotiating table because of the wide range of (discussing) issues and views. I believe that if only one Agency monopolisitic discussion, it does not help. So with any luck we will be able to unite people from different places, the agencies of both sides to speak on these issues”, — said the Agency interlocutor.
Previously to the publication Politico, citing several lawmakers reported that the US administration estimates received from Congress a proposal for the country’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty. The Chairman of the Duma Committee on defence Yury Shvydkin told RIA Novosti that it could lead to an arms race.
The INF Treaty prohibits parties from possessing ballistic missiles, land-based and cruise missiles with a range of from 500 to 5.5 thousand kilometers. Russia and the United States periodically put forward mutual accusations of violating INF Treaty, signed in 1987.
The Russian foreign Ministry said earlier that Moscow is seriously concerned about the use of baseless data for the Agreement as a pretext for a campaign about possible retaliatory measures against Russia.
The Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russian leadership has repeatedly confirmed its adherence to the obligations under the INF Treaty and “any wrongdoing on our part.” He noted that “the United States claim otherwise, but provide no specific information that could be checked in order to clarify the situation.” The Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation also stressed that Moscow “has very serious questions to US about some “liberties” with the implementation of the Treaty by the Americans themselves.