Russia thinks it naive to expect progress in talks with the United States and NATO

This is the opinion of the head of the Russian delegation in negotiations with his American counterpart, based on the general position of the Western partners on the eve of the meeting scheduled for Monday, he told the TASS news agency.

He pointed out that the priority is to explain the logic of the approaches and to clarify the position of Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the legal security commitments proposals submitted by Moscow.

Ryabkov said that on the eve of the talks, the position of the US side did not leave reason for optimism.

He pointed out in this regard that Russia is interested in hearing, during the upcoming contacts, clear statements regarding the non-expansion of NATO and the cancellation of the 2008 Bucharest Summit decision regarding Georgia and Ukraine joining that. to forbid.

It also meant the inadmissibility of the United States and NATO countries continuing to geopolitically exploit all the space they control to the west, northwest and southwest of Russia’s borders.

“This is the main thing for us, not the aspects that the US side is currently focusing on,” Ryabkov stressed, referring to Washington’s remarks to be discussed on Monday only on bilateral issues and issues related to strategic stability.

In response to TASS about the priorities for the upcoming January 12 talks with NATO, Ryabkov indicated that NATO would no longer be able to work with Russia as a secondary country in European and international politics.

“It’s all in the past. It wasn’t good before, but now it’s coming to an end. So NATO needs to pack up and go back to the 1997 borders,” commented the Russian Deputy Minister.

He noted that in May of that year, Russia and NATO signed the Basic Law, affirming that they are not considered adversaries and creating a mechanism for consultation, coordination and joint action.

Oda / ml