Moscow: Talks between Russia and the United States at Moscow’s request for Western Guarantee attending NATO’s expansion to Ukraine will begin immediately after the New Year’s holiday period, Russian Top Diplomat announces Monday.
“With us that we will carry out the main negotiation work, which will take place immediately after the new year’s vacation is over,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview Monday.
Holidays in Russia will last for 10 days, until January 9.
Earlier this month, Moscow submitted a draft of security documents demanding that NATO refuse membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and play back the spread of the military alliance in Central and Eastern Europe.
Washington and his allies refused to provide such promises, but said they were ready for the conversation.
Demands, which are contained in the proposed Russian-US security agreement and security agreements between Moscow and NATO, are designed amid rising tensions of the buildup of Russian forces near Ukraine who have sparked concerns about possible invasions.
Russia denied it had a plan to attack its neighbors but urged legal guarantees that would rule out the spread of NATO’s expansion and weapons there.
Lavrov said last week that, in addition to talking to the US, Moscow will start separate talks with NATO about this issue, as well as separate negotiations under the auspices of the organization for security and cooperation in Europe.
It is important that “our proposal is not injured in endless discussions, the West is famous and who knows how to do it, that there are results from all these diplomatic efforts,” Lavrov said Monday.
NATO General Secretary General Stoltenberg has decided to hold a NATO-Russian council meeting on January 12, NATO officials said Saturday, adding that the block was related to Russia about the meeting.
Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday confirmed the meeting would take place, call talks with NATO “important”, but said the details of the meeting “in the work” and the date must still be confirmed.
Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fin said on Monday to the direction of military representatives and representatives of the Foreign Director forced “confrontational attitude towards Russia”, Moscow demanded security guarantees.
“The alliance consistently ignores Russian interest and avoids a fair discussion about the problems that exist,” said Fommin.