Moscow, April 29 (IANS) The recent nuclear agreement reached by the US and South Korea will have a negative effect on regional security and undermine global stability, said the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“We took note of reports on an agreement that was reached between the US and the ROK (the Republic of Korea) on joint planning with regard to the use of nuclear weapons,” said the Ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, in a statement on Friday.
“This development is clearly destabilising… and will have serious negative consequences for regional security and will impact global stability,” the statement added.
According to the statement, by committing to policies of “extended nuclear deterrence,” the US and its allies are duplicating schemes that Washington has been practicing for decades following the Cold War, and still practices with its NATO allies.
It added that such practices will ultimately undermine international security, lead to a further escalation of tensions, spur security crises, and provoke an arms race, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We call on the US and its allies…to refrain from steps that lead to the weakening of the overall level of security for all states,” said the statement.
The US and South Korea jointly issued the Washington Declaration on April 26 as one of the outcomes of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s visit to the US.
According to reports, the declaration says that the US will upgrade the extended deterrence it provides to South Korea, including enhanced consultation over a nuclear crisis, increased military exercises and training activities, table-top simulation, the establishment of a new Nuclear Consultative Group, and a further expansion of the US regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.
–IANS
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