Ex-UN Diplomat: US-Russian Goal on WMD Nonproliferation Tops All Differences

"There are differences and adverse interests existing between Russia and the United States," Granoff, former Vice President of the NGO Committee on Disarmament at the United Nations and now President of the Global Security Institute, said on Monday.

However, "Working on global common interests, particularly preventing horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons to more states and vertical proliferation in modernizing and technically improving existing arsenals or expanding them, remains more important than those differences," Granoff said.

At the Helsinki Trump-Putin summit and press conference earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after his talks with US President Donald Trump that Russia had passed to the United States its own proposals for joint cooperation on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Controlling the proliferation of nuclear weapons and fully eliminating them had to be priority goal for both the superpowers, Granoff explained.

"It is time to understand security as a global common good. Both Russia and the US must realize fully their duties to all of humanity to walk down the nuclear ladder," he said.

Far from maintaining the security of major powers, the deployment and proliferation of them was a growing threat to them, Granoff warned.

"Simply, nuclear weapons are unworthy of civilization and the more they are perfected the less security is obtained," he said.

Trump and Putin both labeled the talks as highly successful, productive and essential for improving the ties between the United States and Russia. Putin added that it was only a first step, although an important one.