Russia ready to discuss nuclear weapon restrictions

   MOSCOW, Feb. 10 -- Russia is ready to discuss restrictions of its nuclear weapons in a bilateral or multilateral format as long as others abide by the same commitments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
   "If we are offered to put our weapons under restrictions, while others indefinitely develop everything ... of course, such a discussion will lead us nowhere," Lavrov was quoted as saying in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper on Monday.
   He recalled that after the U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002 and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019, Washington has rejected Moscow's proposal to declare a moratorium on the creation and deployment of intermediate range missiles.
   The United States plans to deploy medium- and shorter-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, Lavrov said.
   He also said that Russia has repeatedly proposed extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which expires next year.
   If it comes to multilateral negotiations on the New START in which everyone agrees to participate, of course Russia will also be part of this process, Lavrov said.  Xinhua