WASHINGTON, November 15 (Sputnik) – The United States will continue to cooperate with Russia in the sphere of nuclear security despite Moscow's withdraw from the 2016 Chicago Nuclear Security Summit, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki has announced.
"On a programmatic level we're [the United States and Russia] still working closely together," Psaki said at a press briefing Friday.
"We believe that there is still very important work to do for the United States, for Russia and the world and we remain ready to work with Russia," she added.
According to the spokesperson, Russia has not told the United States that it was planning to halt nuclear security cooperation with Washington completely.
"We haven't received any official notification from Russia about cancelling nuclear security cooperation and of course we continue to believe that we have a shared interest and a shared responsibility in promoting nuclear security," Psaki said, adding that the United States has "a long established partnership with Russia on a broad range of activities designed to prevent the spread of WMD [weapons of mass destruction]".
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed last week that the country would not attend the preparatory meetings for the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Chicago. According to the ministry, Russia informed its US colleagues of the decision in mid-October.
The ministry said in a statement that the summit suffered from various shortcomings, including discrimination against all participants, except for the host countries of previous and upcoming summits, such as the United States.
