STATEMENT

by the Representative of the Russian Federation
in the First Committee of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly
at the Thematic Debate on «Regional Disarmament and Security»

Mr. Chairman,

Colleagues,

The military and political situation in the world continues to deteriorate. We are particularly concerned by the developments in Europe. The official anti-Russian policy of the North Atlantic Alliance "erodes" the original foundation on which European security regimes and instruments were built and functioned.

Thousands of NATO military appear on a so-called "continuous rotational basis" where they have never been – near Russia's borders. The logistics infrastructure of European countries is being redeveloped to accommodate even larger deployments. The scale and intensity of exercises with clearly provocative scenarios, including with strategic aviation and those involving the use of nuclear weapons, have grown. NATO's expansion in the Balkans continues. Once militarily stable regions of Northern Europe and the Baltics increasingly resemble front-line zones. Military activity of the North Atlantic Alliance in the Black Sea region is expanded. New joint (multi-service) forces have been growing in number to project power.

We believe it is necessary to use all opportunities to reduce tension and enhance cooperation.

At a time when the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) is obsolete, security- and confidence-building measures not only remain important but become critical.

We understand the significance of the implementation of the Vienna Document (VD 2011) for European security. Acting in good faith, we intend to further inform the participating States about unannounced operational readiness inspections, and exercises, and invite military attachés of foreign States to attend them as observes. 

We reaffirm our negative attitude to the VD modernization. In circumstances of confrontation and NATO's policy of "containing" Russia, even technical re-issuing of the document has no sense. Security strengthening requires restraint rather than containment.

We still deem the Treaty on Open Skies (OST) an important element of security strengthening. We regret the US decision to withdraw from the OST under the pretext of Russia's "violations" of the Treaty. We note that Washington's actions feed into the policy aimed to destroy the entire regime of arms control agreements and undermine the European security system. Our further steps relating to the OST will depend on our partners' steps.

We believe that "structured dialogue" on security challenges in Europe is an important confidence-building measure to de-escalate military tensions and reduce threat. In our view, meetings in this format are rather useful. In general, themes of discussions cover issues that need to be prioritized: first of all, de-escalation, military disengagement, and re-establishment of military-to-military relations. Proposals voiced require further analysis. We will continue to participate in the "structured dialogue".

We support the OSCE's role in promoting conflict settlement. For our part, we will further facilitate resolution of conflicts in Donbas, Transdniestria and Nagorny Karabakh. We would like to underline that Russia is not a party to any conflict throughout the OSCE space or the world.

On the whole, it should be noted that, given the current deficit of trust, no significant progress can be expected in conventional arms control in Europe.

The consolidation of the US, NATO and the EU basing on their positions of confrontation with our country and their return to the policy of "containment”, and in fact of "discarding", of Russia, an unprecedented political and economic pressure, and breakdown of military cooperation are all contrary to the OSCE policy to build a pan-European security space.

The common objective for all States concerned is to reverse this dangerous trend.

Russia is ready for a constructive work in this area basing on the principles of equality, mutual respect and consideration of each other's legitimate security interests.

Thank you.