“There is no positive reaction on the main issue”: Lavrov spoke about the US response to proposals for security guarantees

Russia has not received an answer from the United States to its main question regarding NATO's refusal to expand eastwards.

This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, commenting on the fact that on January 26 Moscow received written responses from Washington and the North Atlantic Alliance to proposals for security guarantees.

“There is a reaction there that allows you to count on the beginning of a serious conversation, but on secondary topics.

There is no positive reaction on the main issue in this document.

The main issue is our clear position on the inadmissibility of further expansion of NATO to the east and the deployment of strike weapons that could threaten the territory of the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said.

The day before, US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan handed over to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko Washington's written response to the Russian draft bilateral treaty on security guarantees.

At the same time, the Russian ambassador in Brussels received a response from NATO representatives.

“We are considering two documents as a whole, taking into account the fact that they are a reaction to the draft treaty and agreement that we distributed in December 2021. After interdepartmental coordination, we will report to President Vladimir Putin.

He will decide on our next steps," the head of the foreign policy department added.

On December 15, Moscow sent draft agreements with the US and NATO on security issues to its Western partners.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry released both documents.

Between January 10 and 13, Russian delegations held talks with representatives of the United States, NATO and the OSCE.

Vladimir Putin read the US and NATO written responses to Russian proposals for security guarantees.

This was announced by the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov.

According to him, Moscow will not rush to evaluate the documents.

“If necessary, the president consults with members of the leadership, with members of the Security Council, with his assistants.

I can’t tell you any exact date, but it’s clear that no one will delay the reaction too much.

But it would probably be stupid to expect it the next day, too, ”he added, recalling that it took the United States and Europe more than a month to study the Russian initiative.

At the same time, according to him, it became clear from the statements of the US and NATO representatives that they did not take into account in their answers the concerns of the Russian side set out in the draft documents handed over to them.

In the near future, the public will know the contents of the US written response, since a number of Western countries and Ukraine are aware of it.

This statement was also made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“I think that the content of the answer will become known to the general public in the very near future.

As our American colleagues told us (although they prefer to keep the document for confidential diplomatic dialogue), it has been agreed upon with all US allies and the Ukrainian side.

There is no doubt that in the very near future it will “leak,” he stressed.

“The West views the OSCE commitments as a “menu”

Meanwhile, Sergei Lavrov drew attention to the crafty position of Western countries regarding NATO expansion and their disagreement with Moscow, which calls the alliance's eastward advance unacceptable.

“If they explained to us about the 1990s by the absence of written commitments on the non-expansion of NATO, now we have these written commitments.

They have been confirmed within the OSCE more than once, including at the highest level.

We will now focus on explaining this crafty position of our Western colleagues,” said the Russian Foreign Minister.

We are talking about the Istanbul and Astana declarations on European security.

As Lavrov noted, they were signed by the leaders of all the countries that are members of the OSCE, including the US President.

The documents clearly formulate the principle of the indivisibility of security, which all signatories undertake to sacredly observe.

“It has two main interrelated approaches.

First, the right of every state to freely choose military alliances is recognized.

Second: the obligation of each state not to strengthen its security at the expense of the security of others.

In other words, the right to choose alliances is clearly conditioned by the need to take into account the security interests of any other OSCE state, including the Russian Federation, ”Lavrov explained.

• Sergey Lavrov on the response received from the US and NATO to Russian proposals on security guarantees

He stated that Western partners do not mention, "carefully bypass" the provisions enshrined in the Istanbul and Astana declarations, but call for the implementation of the agreed principles regarding the security architecture in the Euro-Atlantic region, which speak of NATO's right to expand.

The head of the foreign affairs agency indicated that he had already addressed Anthony Blinken and asked him to explain the position in which the West “considers the commitments adopted within the OSCE, solely as a“ menu ”, choosing only what is“ tasty ”for them.

“I warned him, as well as our other colleagues, that in the very near future we would send them an official request to explain why they were pulling out only one clause from their own obligations, and they were trying to ignore the conditions for compliance with this favorite clause for them.

This will be an official request to all countries whose leaders signed the Istanbul and Astana declarations.

I hope that in this case it will not take much time to explain why the West takes such a position, ”Lavrov said.