In the course of the upcoming talks with the United States in Geneva, Russia will seek firm security guarantees: no advancement of the NATO military alliance to the east and no deployment of weapons systems near the borders of the Russian Federation, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The meeting is scheduled to be held on January 10 in Geneva, the Russian delegation will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, and the US delegation by First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. “This date has been designated, it does not have any alternatives at the moment,” Zakharova stressed.
“During the talks, we will seek from the American side to provide firm legal guarantees for the security of the Russian Federation, namely, the non-advancement of NATO to the east and the non-deployment of weapons systems threatening Russia at the borders of our country,” she said at a briefing in Moscow.
In mid-December, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements with the United States and NATO on security guarantees. Among Moscow’s proposals is to exclude further NATO expansion and Ukraine’s accession to the alliance, as well as not to deploy intermediate and shorter-range missiles where they can hit the territory of the other side.
On December 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if the US and NATO refused to consider proposals for security guarantees, Russia’s military-technical response could be “very different”, it would depend on the proposals of military experts. The head of the Russian state added that Russia sent its proposals not in order to “blackout something and stop”, but in order to achieve a “diplomatic negotiated result.” According to the president, negotiations on security guarantees will be held in Geneva.
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