Senior Russian diplomat rules out Chinese participation in Vienna consultations

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. The participation of Chinese representatives in the upcoming round of consultations on strategic stability in Vienna is ruled out, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Sunday. "I absolutely rule out the option that the Chinese representatives could be [present at the consultations] there. They have said this multiple times and I don’t have any grounds to mistrust them," Ryabkov said. According to Ryabkov, Moscow is not expecting any breakthrough at the upcoming round of Russian-US consultations on strategic stability in Vienna. "I do not expect any breakthrough at the meeting because the positions of the sides radically differ in certain aspects. And progress, if there is one, is fixed very slowly," Ryabkov said, adding that he did not expect that any deals would be reached. Dimlomat also said that there was no evidence that Washington had changed its stance on extending New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). "There is no progress on New START. There is no evidence that the US approach has been changing. Yes, sometimes we hear some signals that differ from what the Americans had said earlier, but these signals are related to New START to a lesser extent. They refer to what and how to do in the future," Ryabkov said. Moscow believes during the future discussions on strategic stability it is necessary to take into account the potentials of all states and involve them into dialogue, Deputy Foreign Minister told TASS. "We understand very well that in the further dialogue on strategic stability it is necessary to take into account the potentials of all states and involve them into this dialogue in order to show that this is our common collective responsibility," Ryabkov said. "But the decision on whether to participate in it or not is a sovereign decision for each country," the senior diplomat stressed. Read more