Yesterday, in Brussels, the meeting of the Russian and NATO representatives took place. Russia expressed its concern after the event was over, as after almost four hours of talks not much was agreed and even some new disagreements were found. Still today, on January 13, there is expected another negotiation to happen with the OSCE representatives.
On January 12, after the meeting with NATO representatives, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko announced that Moscow will switch to a policy of counter-support if NATO tries to restrain Russia. According to the diplomat, the US-led NATO military bloc has reverted to a full Cold War strategy of “containment” towards Russia and seeks “full-spectrum dominance”. The diplomat added that Moscow believes NATO’s behaviour is creating an “unacceptable” threat to Russia that it will have to counter.
“If NATO switches to a policy of deterrence, then there will be a policy of counter-deterrence on our part. If it is intimidation, then it will be counter-intimidation. If it is a search for some vulnerabilities in the defence system of the Russian Federation, then it will be a search for vulnerabilities on the part of NATO. This is not our choice, but there will be no other way if we fail to reverse the current very dangerous course of events,” Grushko warned.
According to him, Russia firmly believes that “the principle of indivisibility of security should take into account the interests of all, that attempts to build security against Russia without Russia’s participation are counterproductive, they are doomed to failure.” He stressed that this will not be allowed to happen. Moreover, Russia has warned NATO that further degradation of the situation in the sphere of European security will lead to unpredictable consequences for it.
“We very honestly, directly, without trying to circumvent corners, using some politically correct forms, pointed out that further deterioration of the situation could lead to the most unpredictable and most serious consequences for European security. Russia does not agree with such a scenario, and the measures that we are proposing today, as they are fixed in the draft agreement, make it possible to radically turn the situation around,” he said.
According to him, the conversation at the meeting of the Russia-NATO council “turned out to be quite frank, direct, deep, rich, but at the same time it revealed a large number of discrepancies on fundamental issues.”
“Today many people realized that this story will come to an end sooner or later, and it may look different. We are in favour of getting out of this situation using peaceful means, again, on the basis of a reasonable balance,” Grushko emphasized.
Ru-Main, 13.01.2022
Source: Interfax
