The Russian Foreign Ministry spoke today about the progress of negotiations with Western countries on Moscow’s proposals for security guarantees. In what areas has progress been made, and what can not be agreed upon?
Negotiations on Russia’s proposals for security guarantees, which Moscow formulated and handed over to the US and NATO countries in December, are entering a new phase. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has finished its work with the comments of the American side and sent an official response to colleagues. His text will be published.
“I hope that in the near future you will find out how the situation will develop in the future. At least we will send this letter to the American side today,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced. “We consider it right that interested members of civil society of the two countries imagined what was happening. They imagined what positions each side stood for. Otherwise, if you act like our colleagues in Washington and Brussels, then public opinion will be clogged with the lies that are now filling the information space.”
Comments from Washington and Brussels were not published in their entirety. But from the statements of Western politicians it became clear that there are common ground. For example, on the issue of medium-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe or reaching agreements on measures to reduce military risks, including during exercises. But all these are initiatives that Moscow has voiced over the past 2-3 years, and which the West ignored.
Russia welcomes the opportunity to discuss these important topics, but it is important not to forget that the United States and NATO at the same time refuse to talk about three points of principle for us – Ukraine’s non-accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, non-deployment of offensive weapons near Russian borders, and the return of the alliance’s infrastructure to position of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed.
“And then we will expect that, despite the information frenzy that is taking place, our opponents will nevertheless find it possible to sit down at the negotiating table and discuss all pressing issues in direct connection with the three main topics that are of vital interest to Russia” , – the press secretary of the President of Russia expressed hope Dmitry Peskov.
Russia did not come up with proposals on how the rights of all countries to security, prescribed in our two draft documents, should be respected – they are enshrined, among other things, in the founding documents of the OSCE. For example, the fact that it is impossible to strengthen the security of one country at the expense of the security of others. But colleagues prefer to focus only on the point about the right of states to choose their own alliances.
“Our arguments are based on what I spoke about in great detail both today and before. This is the formula of the indivisibility of security, agreed at the highest level, from which the West wants to pull out only one part that suits it. This will not work,” the Russian minister insists. Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.
The same approach or, as Lavrov put it, uncleanliness the West shows regarding the Minsk agreements. Instead of withdrawing heavy weapons, Kiev wants to reform the constitution and consolidate the special status of Donbass in it, hold elections, that is, consistently fulfill all the points specified in the agreements, and now regain control over the border. And West to him in this endeavor indulges.
“Control over the border is the final chord. And now our Western colleagues are telling us: well, yes, there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements, but let’s change the sequence. This is what Zelensky has been striving for a long time, and Poroshenko before him. and then we will figure it out ourselves. We need a status there and what kind of it is needed, there will be elections there, there will be an amnesty there, or we will imprison everyone there, “Sergey Lavrov reveals Kyiv’s plans.
Russia hopes that tension around the topic of Ukraine will not affect the course of negotiations on security guarantees. The Kremlin calls the situation in Donbass a matter of concern, but there are no plans to negotiate with Kiev yet.