UNITED NATIONS - Any aggression against Russia "will be met with a decisive response," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his address to the general debate of the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
He said Western countries have increasingly threatened the use of force against Russia while accusing Moscow of nearly planning to attack NATO and European Union countries.
Noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly debunked such provocations, Lavrov stressed that Russia has never had nor does it have such intentions.
On the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Lavrov said, as the Russian president has repeatedly stressed, Russia has been and remains open to negotiations to eliminate the root causes of the conflict from the very beginning.
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Russia's security and vital interests must be reliably guaranteed, and the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people in the territories that remain under the control of Ukraine must be restored and respected, he added. "On this basis, we are ready to talk about security guarantees for Ukraine."
On Russia-US relations, Lavrov said Russia places certain hopes on the continuation of the dialogue between the two countries, especially following the summit in the US state of Alaska in August.
Lavrov said that Russia sees an aspiration by the US side not only to contribute to finding realistic ways to resolve the Ukraine crisis but also a desire to develop pragmatic cooperation without taking an ideological stance.
Russia and the United States bear a special responsibility for the state of the world and for avoiding risks that could plunge humanity into a new war, he stressed.
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Lavrov also reiterated a new initiative proposed by Putin -- Moscow is prepared to adhere to nuclear arms limits for one year after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in February 2026, provided the United States takes the same step and refrains from actions that could upset the existing balance of deterrence capabilities.
Signed by Russia and the United States in 2010, the New START treaty imposes caps on the number of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems. It entered into force on Feb 5, 2011, and would have expired on Feb 5, 2021. Moscow and Washington officially extended the treaty by five years to February 2026.
