The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation published an official statement on its website concerning the dialogue with the US and other Western countries regarding security guarantees, which are required to be agreed upon officially in written form.
The talks between the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and his counterpart, Joe Biden, were held on December 7 in the format of a videoconference. Bilateral relations, strategic stability, as well as the situation in Ukraine were discussed as part of the online meeting. After the talks with Putin, Biden held the next ones with the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. At the moment of the meeting, a military provocation from the Ukrainian side was carried out and stopped immediately as the talks were over.
This case once again proved the right line of Russia in its intentions to ensure security and agree with the Western countries written promises in this sphere. In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry referred to Biden’s readiness expressed at the talks with Putin on December 7, 2021, to establish a serious dialogue on issues related to ensuring the security of Russia.
“Such a dialogue is urgently needed today when the relations between Russia and the collective West continue to decay and have approached a critical line,” the Ministry noted.
It is stated by the Russian Ministry that “escalating a confrontation with our country is absolutely unacceptable.” As explained, the West is using the situation in Ukraine as a pretext, where it embarked on “encouraging Russophobia and justifying the actions of the Kiev regime to undermine the Minsk agreements and prepare for a military scenario in Donbass.”
It is also said that “instead of reigning in their Ukrainian protégés, NATO countries are pushing Kiev towards aggressive steps.”
“There can be no alternative interpretation of the increasing number of unplanned exercises by the United States and its allies in the Black Sea. NATO members’ aircraft, including strategic bombers, regularly make provocative flights and dangerous manoeuvres in close proximity to Russia’s borders,” the Ministry stated.
According to the Ministry, “the militarization of Ukraine’s territory and pumping it with weapons are ongoing.” It is stressed that such irresponsible behaviour creates grave military risks for all parties involved, up to and including a large-scale conflict in Europe.
“Over the past decades, we have offered a number of times to render the principle of comprehensive and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic a legally binding status since the West is obviously inclined to disregard its political obligations. However, we were invariably refused,” the Ministry reminds.
In this regard and referring to the Russian President, the Ministry insists that serious long-term legal guarantees are provided, which would exclude NATO’s further advancement to the east and deployment of weapons on Russia’s western borders which are a threat to Russia. As specified, this must be done within a specific timeframe and on the basis of the principle of comprehensive and indivisible security.
To ensure the vital interests of European security, it is named as a necessary measure to officially disavow the decision taken at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest about “Ukraine and Georgia becoming NATO members” as contrary to the commitment undertaken by all the OSCE participating States “not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States.”
“We insist on the adoption of a legally binding agreement regarding the US and other NATO member countries’ non-deployment of strike weapons systems which threaten the territory of the Russian Federation on the territories of adjacent countries, both members and non-members of NATO,” the Ministry said and continued,
"We also insist on receiving a concrete response from NATO to our previous proposals on decreasing tension in Europe, including the following points: - withdrawal of regions for operative military exercises to an agreed distance from Russia-NATO contact line; - coordination of the closest approach point of combat ships and aircraft to prevent dangerous military activities, primarily in the Baltic and the Black Sea regions; - renewal of regular dialogue between the defence ministries in the Russia-US and Russia-NATO formats. We call on Washington to join Russia’s unilateral moratorium on the deployment of surface short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe, to agree on and introduce measures for the verification of reciprocal obligations."
Russia, from its side, promised to submit a comprehensive proposal on legal security guarantees as part of preparations for the next round of the Russia-US dialogue on strategic stability. The country’s Foreign Ministry also informed of its intention to advocate holding an in-depth discussion of the military aspects of ensuring security via defence ministries with the engagement of the foreign ministries of Russia and NATO countries.
“We urge our partners to carefully examine Russia’s proposals and start serious talks on agreements that will provide a fair and sustainable balance of interests in our common space,” the Ministry concluded.
Ru-Main, 13.12.2021
Source: Russian Foreign Ministry
