Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on October 10 that the five nuclear powers in the UN would be holding a meeting soon on the issue of strategic stability. In later comments to TASS he noted that the Five had held a meeting earlier this month on non-proliferation, concentrating primarily on North Korea. “The meeting did not contain elements of discussing the situation in the sphere of strategic stability,” he said on October 17. “I think that China’s coordination in the ‘nuclear five’ is a more suitable source for the corresponding assessments. I am not ready to disclose what are called the semantic aspects of the discussion held there, because this format is closed.”
He discouraged any major expectations from such discussions, however, noting that the “Five” format has been in practice for many years, and “nothing is happening there now that would change the picture.”
