Europe needs to renew its security structure, as the current one is "almost obsolete."

This was stated in an interview with the Financial Times by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

“There is a demand from Russia for stability and guarantees, but there is also a demand for stability and guarantees from our side.

We are ready to talk about this and everything else,” he said.

According to the head of the French Foreign Ministry, today there are no rules governing European security, since arms control treaties covering everything from medium-range missiles to the movement of armed forces are "virtually outdated."

Le Drian believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin now has two ways to develop the situation: choose a “strategy of tension” or become a partner in a new order of security and stability in Europe.

At the same time, he welcomed the Kremlin's diplomatic initiatives and called Moscow's reports about the return of troops after the exercises to their places of permanent deployment "a modest start."

“However, it will be necessary to look, for example, at how the maneuvers will end in Belarus, the Black Sea and near the Ukrainian borders.

All this is included in the de-escalation,” the minister added.

  • French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

  • Legion Media

dispel anxieties

Earlier, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said about the readiness of the European Union to conduct a dialogue with Moscow on security guarantees.

“Russia certainly has security concerns.

This must be recognized, and we have recognized it.

Everyone has security concerns.

But the concerns of all parties can be taken into account only by meeting at the negotiating table,” Borrell said on BBC Radio 4 on February 15.

At the same time, the diplomat noted that there is nothing strange in the fact that the Russian Federation has been worried for years "about the deployment of NATO forces in its neighborhood."

Moreover, Moscow has repeatedly referred to the West's verbal promises made in the past that "this will never happen."

“NATO includes three former Soviet republics - the Baltic countries.

This worries Russia, they want to clarify the situation there, and we are ready to do it,” Borrell said.

At the same time, on February 17, before the planned meeting of NATO at the level of defense ministers with the participation of the European Union, the head of European diplomacy again repeated the thesis about the inadmissibility of restoring the policy of spheres of influence.

In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a press conference following talks with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio, noted that the EU itself adheres to this policy.

“Today we recalled how the leaders of the European Union said that they should decide everything in the Balkans, and Russia has nothing to do there.

Recently, Mr. Borrell again repeated his position that in Africa Russia interferes with the European Union.

That is, probably, the European Union may have some zones of influence, and for Russia, even its neighbors are not something where the European Union and NATO are not actively trying to penetrate,” the minister said.

At the same time, Lavrov stressed that the task of such penetration is mainly to "work there against the interests of the Russian Federation."

The attempt by NATO and the EU to insist on their leading role in ensuring security in the Euro-Atlantic region was also criticized by the head of the Russian delegation at the talks in Vienna on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov.

Speaking on February 16 at a regular meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation, he stressed that such an approach is “categorically unacceptable” for Moscow.

  • Member of the NATO forces

  • Gettyimages.ru

positive signal 

Nevertheless, in Moscow, on the whole, they positively assess the willingness of the West to discuss issues that are sensitive for the Russian Federation.

As Sergei Lavrov said during his report to Vladimir Putin on February 14, Russia, the United States and NATO have a chance to agree on those issues that Moscow considers to be priorities.

“Still, our consistent explanatory work and commitment to explaining our innocence, while being ready to listen to some serious counter-arguments ... It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted,” the minister said.

A day later, at a press conference following talks with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Western partners agreed to discuss the issues raised only when they realized that Russia was "seriously talking about the need for radical changes in the field of European security."

Recall that on December 15, 2021, Moscow handed over to the United States and NATO drafts of a treaty on security guarantees and an agreement on measures to ensure the security of Russia and the bloc countries.

Initially, the allies tried to delay the discussion of these documents by unleashing an information and propaganda campaign against the Russian Federation in order to present it as an “aggressor” and a “threat” to international stability.

Nevertheless, on January 26, Washington and Brussels nevertheless transmitted their responses to Russian initiatives.

However, in Moscow they were called unsatisfactory.

On February 8, Vladimir Putin, at a press conference following talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, said that Russia's central concerns had been ignored.

Recall that Russia is seeking guarantees from Western partners that NATO will not further expand to the east, that the alliance will refuse to deploy strike weapons near the borders of the Russian Federation and that the bloc’s military potential in Europe will return to the state of 1997.

Right to security

Experts interviewed by RT believe that politicians and diplomats in the West are gradually coming to the realization that modern Russia is no longer the same as it was 30 years ago, when the concerns expressed by it could simply be brushed aside.

According to Alexei Podberyozkin, director of the MGIMO Center for Military-Political Studies, the firmness of the positions demonstrated by Moscow came as a surprise to the United States, NATO and the European Union and forced them to take a different look at the Russian partner.

“Until relatively recently, we were rather amorphous in promoting our interests.

Of course, we have said before that the security system does not satisfy us, but we did it extremely sluggishly.

But the December statements, the subsequent auctions and military maneuvers by Russia showed that we are able to defend our security by any means, ”Podberyozkin said.

In turn, Sergey Ermakov, an expert at the RISS Research Coordination Center, expressed the opinion that the West's disregard for Russia's national interests led to a crisis in the pan-European security system.

“Therefore, as the French Foreign Minister correctly noted, Europe needs to work on a new security architecture and rules to take into account the interests of all players in the region.

The fact that there is already a response from such a large European country is a positive signal.

But how realistic the capitals of the EU countries are ready to sit down at the negotiating table is an extremely complex and painstaking question.

The upcoming negotiations will not be easy,” the analyst said.

According to Alexei Poberezkin, another reason for the current situation with European security was the destructive actions of the United States.

“Practically all arms treaties were destroyed by Washington.

In fact, only one Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (START III) is in force today.

The rest - on open skies (ON), on the elimination of intermediate and shorter-range missiles (INF), on conventional armed forces - the United States simply swept aside, as they were an obstacle to Washington and restrained it, ”the expert recalled.

However, it is extremely important for the European Union, whose security is built not on military-technical power, but on treaties and agreements, to restore them, Podberyozkin believes.

Therefore, the EU wants to discuss with Russia the return to compliance with the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) and the INF Treaty.

In this regard, a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, retired Major General Pavel Zolotarev, in a commentary on RT, called Russia's initiatives on security guarantees timely.

“The Ukrainian crisis, the uncontrolled expansion of NATO, the curtailment of the permanent mission of the Russian Federation to the alliance, the freezing of mechanisms for preventing conflict situations - all this increases the risk of various incidents.

Neither Russia nor Europe are interested in them.

Therefore, we need new guarantees, fixed legally.

And in France, in this matter, they decided to act as a locomotive on the part of the EU.

Moreover, Paris under Macron from the very beginning tried to build its policy towards Moscow from the position of dialogue, ”the expert emphasized.