Right of reply by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy in the First Committee of the 75th session of the UNGA on cluster 1 “Nuclear Weapons”
Mr. President,
Unfortunately, we once again heard from the US delegation baseless speculations that Russia allegedly violated the nuclear test moratorium. However, when claiming this, Americans admit that they cannot cite facts of such violations, or say how many of them allegedly took place.
We would like to emphasize that we have taken no action that would violate our commitments stemming from the unilateral nuclear test moratorium and our ratification of the CTBT. Unlike the United States, Russia ratified CTBT 20 years ago and since then has been voluntarily implementing it, even though it has not entered into force yet, i.a. because of the US side sabotaging it. That is why accusations, the likes of which we heard today, are nothing but an unconvincing attempt to shift responsibilities.
All indications are that the US colleagues launch such insinuations to distract attention from the CTBT. When refusing to ratify the CTBT, the US put the test-ban regime on a verge of collapse and lost the right to advance any claims in this area.
It is hard to get rid of an impression that the US is creating grounds for shutting down the as-yet-effective voluntary nuclear test moratorium. We think this scenario is quite real. Suffice it to recall a similar information campaign that the United States carried out when unilaterally withdrawing from the INF Treaty. In light of this, we would like to mention the recent US-issued doctrinal documents and announced plans to advance and enhance the nuclear missile capacity. As the US is the only country to have used nuclear weapons against civilians 75 years ago, we believe such initiatives pose a real threat that endangers the humanity.
Thank you.
