NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has announced the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12. One of the topics of the meeting will be European security and the situation in Ukraine.

Grushko goes to Brussels

“I convened the Russia-NATO Council on January 12 to discuss issues related to European security, especially the situation in and around Ukraine, issues related to military activity, mutual transparency (actions of the Russian and NATO military) and risk reduction, "Stoltenberg wrote on his Twitter page.

Today, January 4, NATO confirmed that negotiations with Russia on security guarantees will take place on January 12, 2022. The press service of the North Atlantic Alliance noted that "the dialogue with Russia should be conducted on the basis of reciprocity, to respond to NATO's concerns about Russian actions."

Later it became known that the heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of NATO countries will hold an emergency videoconference on January 7 to discuss Russia's requirements on security guarantees. Currently, the North Atlantic Alliance consists of 30 countries.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Alexander Grushko told TASS that he will represent the Russian side at the upcoming meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels.

He also said that the North Atlantic Alliance, having announced plans to hold an emergency video conference of the Foreign Ministers on the eve of the meeting, made an attempt to increase the tension around the internal Ukrainian conflict.

“We expect such steps from the alliance. Usually the NRC (Russia-NATO Council) has always been preceded by either a Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting or a North Atlantic Council meeting. These are some signals that NATO is sending us that they are concerned about the alleged concentration of Russian forces ... This all fits into their line ... of positioning Russia as a party to the conflict. There is nothing surprising here, ”the diplomat said.

"Red Lines"

The expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east and the deployment of offensive weapons on the territory of Ukraine are "red lines" for Moscow. The President of Russia has repeatedly stated this.

“I want everyone to understand, both in our country and abroad, it was clear to our partners that it’s not even the line that we don’t want anyone to cross. The fact is that we have nowhere to go. They pushed us to such a line, excuse the bad manners, that we have nowhere to move on, ”Putin said on December 26 in an interview with the Russia 1 TV channel.

According to him, this is precisely why in mid-December the Russian Foreign Ministry published the drafts of two treaties on security guarantees - with the United States and NATO member states.

“Yes, this may not be the usual way to conduct a discussion. But we have fears that ... any of our proposals will be used in order to fill it with destructive work of creating threats for us in our neighboring countries, on their territory, "the leader of the country noted.

Security guarantees

In the treaties directed to the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance, the Russian Federation demands that Ukraine or other post-Soviet countries abandon further expansion of NATO and join the alliance.

In addition, the Russian side offered NATO not to deploy additional military contingents and weapons outside the countries in which they were in May 1997 (before the accession of Eastern European countries to NATO), except in exceptional cases with the consent of Russia and the members of the alliance.

Among other things, Russia expects from the United States a commitment not to deploy weapons and forces in areas where this will be perceived by the other side as a threat to national security. Also in the draft treaty, the United States proposed to undertake obligations not to create military bases in post-Soviet countries, not to use their military infrastructure and not to develop military cooperation with them.

On December 23, during a large press conference, Putin announced that Russia needed security guarantees "immediately". “What is incomprehensible here? Are we placing missiles near the US borders? No, it was the United States with its missiles that came to our house, they are already on the threshold of our house. Is this some kind of excessive requirement - not to put any shock systems at our house? What is unusual here? " - the Russian president said then.

Negotiations with the United States on the documents proposed by the Russian side will begin on January 10 in Geneva. On January 4, the US State Department announced that the States did not intend to discuss any issues related to NATO during a dialogue with the Russian Federation on strategic stability. However, the Americans expect to identify points of contact that will allow the dialogue to continue.

bbabo.Net