The Russian side is not bluffing, presenting proposals to the United States and NATO for security guarantees, and will do everything possible to implement this understanding in the West. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov in an interview with International Affairs magazine.
"We are not bluffing when we say absolutely and emphatically that we demand the formal withdrawal of the decision from the Bucharest summit in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO <...> when we say that more further NATO enlargement must be ruled out in principle when we say that NATO's infrastructure and any events that are provocative for Russia must be returned to the positions that existed at the time of the signing of the Russia-NATO Fundamental Act in 1997. These are our real suggestions. "This must be implemented (in the West) with all our might, and we will do it," he said.
Negotiations between Russia and the West on security guarantees can be conducted in different ways, but this should not change the nature of Moscow's proposals, Ryabkov said.
"We do not rule out other lines [of the security negotiations], I think there will be clarity here in the near future. ]", he said.
Ryabkov also noted the urgency of discussions between the Russian Federation and the West on security issues, stressing the need to ensure Russia's security and NATO's non-progress in the east.
"The issue is urgent, the escalation is serious, the problems are big, we must put an end to NATO's progress, NATO's infrastructure, NATO's capabilities and further east," Ryabkov added.
On December 17, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a draft agreement with the United States on security guarantees and an agreement on security measures for the Russian Federation and the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty. They were handed over to Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried on December 15.
No comments:
Post a Comment