Russia wants serious security guarantees from talks with US, NATO

Moscow [Russia], December 28 (ANI/Sputnik): Russia will be looking for serious guarantees at security talks with the United States and NATO in January, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said on Tuesday.

“As for what we want … this is a serious proposal and we want serious guarantees from the United States first and foremost, and from NATO,” Polyanskiy said. “We are quite constructive but I don’t think our colleagues will get away with some blah blah blah thing, as Greta puts it, so we really want something serious this time. It’s not an ultimatum… it’s a constructive proposal, but a proposal that works for everybody and that is in the interests of everybody.”

The US and Russia will hold talks on arms control and Ukraine on January 10. Negotiations on security guarantees with NATO are expected to take place on January 12 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Russia will firmly defend its national interests at the upcoming talks, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, vowing not to make any unilateral concessions without taking the balance of interests into account. Shortly after the announcement of the talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Sputnik that the main issue to be raised at the talks would be security proposals for NATO laid out by Russia, including non-expansion of the alliance in Eastern Europe.

Relations between NATO and Russia have deteriorated over the West’s accusations that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that troop movements are purely defensive given NATO‘s increased military activity near Russian borders, and stressed that it has the right to move troops within its own territory at its discretion. (ANI/Sputnik)