Use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine ‘inadmissible’, says Quad group after Putin exits from New START treaty

The Kremlin’s threats of using nuclear weapons in the continuing war in Ukraine are “inadmissible”, foreign ministers of the Quad group said on Friday in New Delhi, in the first such condemnation of Moscow’s repeated indications of deploying its nuclear arsenal in Europe.

“We continued to discuss our responses to the conflict in Ukraine and the immense human suffering it is causing, and concurred that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible,” the Quad – comprising the US, Australia, India and Japan – said in its latest statement as the ministers met along the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

The joint statement from the Quad leaders comes just a day after the foreign ministers at the G20 meeting were unable to reach consensus over the war in Ukraine and ended the meeting without any common agreement on the conflict.

Russia and the United States together hold 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear warheads.

On Thursday, the top US official met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for the first time since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year.

The conversation between the two lasted less than 10 minutes, where Mr Blinken urged the Russian leader to end the war and to participate in the New START nuclear treaty.

Last month, Vladimir Putin announced suspension of Moscow’s candidature from the crucial agreement, and threatened to resume nuclear tests.

The New START Treaty limited each side to 1,550 warheads on deployed missile launchers and heavy bombers. Both sides met the central limits by 2018.

The leaders did not engage in any negotiations, according to the Russian news agencies.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there would be no statement agreed by all nations “because there were differences on the Ukraine issue which we could not reconcile”.

But on Friday, the Quad ministers “underscored the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with  international law, including the UN Charter”.

“We emphasised that the rules-based international order must respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency and peaceful resolution of disputes,” the foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

Mr Jaishankar, along with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong, Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, met a day after the leaders reached India for the G20 meeting being hosted by New Delhi.

“Good to break bread with my Quad colleagues in New Delhi today. Together, we recognise the Indo-Pacific region will shape the trajectory of the world in the 21st century and are committed to safeguarding its peace, stability, and growing prosperity,” Mr Blinken tweeted.

He also said that Russia cannot be allowed to wage war with impunity in Ukraine.

"If we allow with impunity Russia to do what it’s doing in Ukraine, then that’s a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they may be able to get away with it too," Mr Blinken told a forum in India which was also attended by the Quad ministers.

The United States and its allies at the G20 meet called on member countries to keep pressuring Russia to end the conflict.

However, in a rare first, the G20 nations were unable to agree on a joint statement on the war due to opposition from Russia and China.