MOSCOW: A meeting of the “Nuclear Five”—Russia, the United States, China, France, and Britain—is scheduled to take place in New York within the next two weeks, Russian state media reported on Thursday quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov provided limited details about the upcoming meeting, withholding specifics on the date and the level of officials expected to attend.
The meeting holds significant implications as it marks the first major interaction among these nuclear-armed states since the onset of the Ukraine conflict, which has strained relations between Russia and the West.
The heightened urgency for dialogue follows President Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement regarding changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine. He stated that Moscow is expanding the scenarios that could lead to the potential use of nuclear weapons.
In January 2022, the Nuclear Five in a joint statement, weeks before Russia’s military action in Ukraine, underscored their commitment to avoiding war between nuclear powers and reducing strategic risks. “We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” they said at the time.
