The Pentagon reacted to Lavrov’s statements on Ukraine

by time news

The United States welcomes the statements of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that today there are diplomatic resources to resolve the contradictions between Russia and NATO, including regarding the situation around Ukraine. This was stated by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in an interview with CNN.

“We welcome the views expressed by Minister Lavrov, who believes that there is still time and space for diplomacy. We agree with that,” Kirby said (quoted by RIA Novosti).

Earlier today, Lavrov, in response to a question from President Vladimir Putin about whether Russia has a chance to reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on key issues of concern to Moscow, Lavrov said that “endless conversations about issues that need to be addressed today” are unacceptable. “But still, probably, being the head of the Foreign Ministry, I must say that there is always a chance,” he added.

In mid-December, Russia submitted to the United States and NATO its proposals for a European security architecture. Among the three main steps that Moscow called for were preventing the alliance from expanding eastward, including Ukraine and Georgia, refusing to deploy strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and returning the bloc’s military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when it was signed the founding act of Russia-NATO, which created a mechanism for joint action and consultations. In 1999, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland joined NATO, in 2004 – Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, from 2009 to 2020 the alliance included Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia .

Russia has carefully studied the US and NATO responses on security assurances, Lavrov said today. He noted that Russia’s key proposals received a negative response. Western countries referred to the right of any state to choose allies and join alliances, the minister noted, but Moscow does not consider this right “unconditional.” Lavrov added that Russia will continue to seek a concrete response to its proposals from each country.

At the same time, according to him, the United States and NATO have demonstrated a “constructive” approach to a number of other issues – for example, their readiness to negotiate measures to withdraw exercises from the line of contact between Russia and NATO, agree on the maximum distance between combat aircraft and warships, as well as on other military-technical measures proposed by the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 2020. The draft Russian response was presented by Lavrov to Putin on February 14. According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin has conceptually approved the project and diplomats are now “finalizing the document.”

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