The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a posting in its Telegram channel yesterday, called attention to an Aug. 9 document entitled “Russia’s Position at the Seventy-Eighth Session of the UN General Assembly,” in particular, the sections dealing with nuclear weapons and arms control. In the section on arms control, numbered 40, the document asserts that progress in disarmament “depends directly on the situation in the area of international security and strategic stability” and connects the whole matter to the paradigm shift now underway in the world, that is, the BRICS process and the effort to develop a new system of mutual security.
“More broadly, attempts to use every possible means to hamper the shaping of a more just polycentric world order lead to heightened inter-state tensions and conflict potential,” it says. “Against this background, it appears advisable to aim for creating a new, more solid and viable architecture of international security and global strategic stability based on mutually acceptable rules of coexistence guaranteeing the required basic level of security for all and preventing any of the parties from securing decisive military-strategic superiority.”
In the previous section, number 39, the document explains why Russia can no longer support the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It begins by noting Russia’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. “However, against the background of the all-out hybrid war unleashed against us, our country has reached the limits of its nuclear arms reduction capabilities,” it says. “Further progress on this track will only be possible if Western countries abandon their anti-Russian policy and should involve all countries that possess military nuclear capabilities.”
