“The Russian Defense Minister briefly commented on the responses received from the United States and NATO on Russian draft agreements on this issue,” TASS reports.
As noted, Shoigu “focused on the lack of responses to Russia’s key demands: the rejection of NATO expansion, the non-deployment of strike weapons near Russian borders, and the return of the bloc’s military capabilities and infrastructure in Europe to the positions of 1997, when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed ".
In addition, the Russian minister stressed that without resolving these issues, “it is impossible to reduce military-political tension and build a solid European security architecture.”
On February 11, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace arrived in Moscow for talks with Sergei Shoigu.
Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that there was no substantive reaction to the message of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the issue of understanding and putting into practice the principle of indivisibility of security in the responses of NATO and the EU.
In the message, Lavrov announced his desire to get a clear answer to the question of how Russia's partners understand their obligation not to strengthen their own security at the expense of the security of other states.
The Russian side also suggested that in case other countries refuse this obligation, they should clearly communicate this.