Remarks at a UN Security Council briefing on threats to international peace and security, additional response
Ambassador Robert Wood
Deputy Commissioner for Special Political Affairs
New-York, New-York
March 31, 2023
AS DELIVERED
Thank you Mr President. I apologize for taking the floor, but I have to respond to some of the allegations made against the United States by the representative of the Russian Federation.
Honestly, there are too many ridiculous accusations to respond to. Russia has completely twisted the facts surrounding the unfortunate demise of several treaties; but I will only address a few issues that I believe are fundamental and that have been addressed.
The INF Treaty – in 2013 the US engaged with Russia and clarified that we had evidence that Russia was violating the INF Treaty by deploying a non-INF missile called the 9M729. Russia denied the existence of this missile. We have worked very hard over the years, myself and a number of my colleagues, to try to persuade Russia to return to INF compliance.
In 2017, Russia finally admitted the existence of this missile but said it was not out of range of the INF Treaty. After much deliberation, internally and with allies, we decided that Russia – ruled by the US – committed a material breach of the INF Treaty by Russia. And so we subsequently took a step to withdraw from the contract, which was extremely unfortunate, but we felt we had no choice but to do so. I just wanted to make sure the records are clear on this.
Regarding the issue of nuclear sharing, it is an issue which, as the High Representative mentioned, was already being discussed in the NPT negotiations in the late 1960s. At no time did Russia fundamentally object to NATO’s pre-existing agreements – it signed and ratified the treaty. It was only after her invasion of Crimea that she decided to look for a reason to get out of the treaty, or at least accuse the US of essentially violating the NPT. And so we haven’t heard from Russia about nuclear sharing for three decades, almost four decades. So it’s quite strange that after all these years up until after Crimea, Russia didn’t have any problems with that. So, I want to clarify this issue of nuclear sharing because it’s quite important.
This issue of NATO’s nuclear sharing, as I said, was an issue discussed in the NPT negotiations. The US has not violated the NPT – and will not violate it – we are fully compliant with our NPT obligations. Including Article Six, which was addressed here.
Any suggestion that the United States is violating this treaty is simply false. And the countries that are raising this issue need to read the NPT – read the history of the NPT. I have read it several times, so I reject this accusation in principle.
My final point, Mr President, is that we are here specifically to address the deployment or planned deployment of nuclear weapons by Russia in Belarus. This is a fundamental threat to world peace and security.
And our Russian colleague has not fully explained what this possible deployment is all about.
And we call on Russia to honor its international arms control obligations. Thank you Mr President.
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