MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia will not reduce its nuclear capability while the United States maintains an "unclear" position on missile defence, the Russian army's chief of staff Nikolai Makarov said on Friday.
"While the situation in the world is unclear, including concerning the missile defence system, we will not touch our nuclear potential," the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted Makarov as saying.
Makarov was referring to the US plan to install missile defence facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland which Moscow has insisted is aimed against Russia.
The plan was initiated by the previous US administration of George W. Bush but President Barack Obama has pledged to press ahead with the missile shield for as long as Iran was deemed a nuclear threat.
"We will be making practically no changes to the Russian strategic missile forces," added Makarov.
"Strategic nuclear forces are a sacred question for us and we will give them as many resources as required to preserve stability in the world and keep it at an appropriate level," he added.
The announcement from Makarov -- the top Russian general -- comes as Russia and the United States hold talks aimed at cutting their nuclear arsenals by renewing a 1991 treaty that is due to expire at the end of the year.
The confidential negotiations are meant to feed in to a summit between Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on July 6-8 that is expected to push forward improving ties.
The 1991 START agreement, signed just before the break-up of the Soviet Union, bounds both sides to deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals. It expires on December 5.
A senior Russian diplomat said this week that Moscow was still awaiting a "concretisation" of signals from the US on the missile shield, which he said Russia still deemed "an unnecessary complication in bilateral relations."
Ties between Russia and the United States plunged to a post Cold War low in the last months of the Bush presidency amid Moscow's war with Georgia but the tone has improved drastically since Obama came to power.
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