The Russian ambassador stated the threat of the collapse of the NPT due to nuclear rhetoric in Europe

Talk of expanding nuclear capabilities in Europe is undermining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and encouraging other countries to create it. This statement was made on May 3 by Russian Ambassador to France Alexey Meshkov.

He noted that the Treaty was adopted at the height of the Cold War, several years after the Cuban Missile crisis.

"And we, the Americans and the British, together had the wisdom to develop this fundamental document together with other countries. And all these arguments lead, on the one hand, to the collapse of this treaty, and on the other hand, it sounds, roughly speaking, like a call to other countries of the world: why don't we create nuclear weapons?", the ambassador told RIA Novosti.

Meshkov recalled that the United States, Great Britain and the USSR are depositaries and key parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). He explained that the document was adopted against the background of a technological situation when dozens of countries already had the potential to create nuclear weapons, which could lead to global nuclear chaos. According to him, it was to prevent such a scenario that the treaty was developed, to which France later joined.

The diplomat expressed regret that France's pro-nuclear rhetoric is only intensifying and leading to the destruction of this fundamental treaty.

Nuclear gambit: NPT participants gather at a conference in New York

The meeting may end without a final document for the third time in a row.

Andrei Belousov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on May 2 that the nuclear aspirations of Britain and France reflect the long-term course of London and Paris to avoid participating in arms control agreements.

According to him, such a policy is systemic in nature and is seen as a continuation of the previous line of the two countries in the nuclear field. Belousov also pointed out that the Western "nuclear troika" consisting of the United States, Great Britain and France, in his assessment, ignores the provisions of the NPT and continues to build up nuclear potential.