“If we are interested in justice on Earth and that what all our presidents under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have signed up to be put into practice, namely that security should only be equal and indivisible and no one should strengthen their security at the expense of the interests of others - then, of course, we need to talk, ”he said.
At the same time, Lavrov added that Russia is no longer going to believe the empty promises of the West.
“After all these events, which showed the true intention of the West towards Russia, we will talk from somewhat different positions and it will no longer be possible to accept promises on faith,” he stressed.
In May, former US President George W. Bush said that US promises made in the past to Russia about non-expansion of NATO did not matter.
In February, the German publication Der Spiegel reported that a 1991 document was found in the National Archives of Great Britain, in which Western countries declared the unacceptability of NATO expansion to the east.
Later, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed the opinion that the alliance had not violated the promise not to expand to the east.