Russian Foreign Minister Accuses US Of Violating Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

During another contentious meeting of the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the US of violating the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - the cornerstone of the global nonproliferation regime - by training its NATO allies to use US nuclear arms installed on European territory, according to RT.

According to Lavrov, the US has decided to keep "a significant number of rockets" in Europe, breaching the major nuclear arms agreement, according to Interfax.

"Everybody should understand that the US military are preparing the militaries of European states to use tactical nuclear weapons against Russia," he stressed.

The US keeps an estimated 200 of its B61 nuclear bombs in countries including Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey as part of NATO’s nuclear-sharing program. Russia considers the presence of American nuclear weapons on foreign soil to be a hostile gesture. The US is in the process of upgrading the B61, making the weapon more flexible in use, claiming it is necessary to counter Russia’s arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons. Russia says its arsenal is necessary to protect it from NATO’s overwhelming superiority in terms of conventional arms.

Last month, representatives of the US and Japan clashed with their North Korean counterparts at a similar forum in Geneva.