On February 20, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called replies from the EU and NATO to letters from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about understanding the indivisibility of security as replies.
“I would call these papers replies. It’s a couple of paragraphs, maybe three. Our opponents are leaving this conversation, and leaving pointedly, in some aspects in a defiant way. The minister wrote letters to his colleagues in all countries, 37 letters. In response, I received two short texts about nothing. This is the level of today’s work on the main issues in the European Union and NATO,” Ryabkov said on the air of the Russia-1 TV channel.
On February 11, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the EU and NATO responses to a letter from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the principle of indivisible security a manifestation of diplomatic impoliteness and disrespect. She explained that they “sent what they present as a response to the message.” And there was no substantive reaction to the directly posed question in the received “documents”.
On February 10, it became known that Russia received a collective response on behalf of the foreign ministers of 27 EU member states to Lavrov’s letter on European security.
Lavrov’s message was addressed to the foreign ministers of 37 European and North American states. However, the response was written by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and EU Security Policy Josep Borrell, who were not approached.
On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Russia and the United States and NATO on security guarantees. It follows from the documents that the alliance must renounce any military activity on the territory of Ukraine and other states of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Also, Russia and NATO must pledge not to create conditions that can be regarded as a threat by the other side.
In January 2022, negotiations on security guarantees were held in three stages. On January 10, a meeting of the Russian and US delegations took place in Geneva. On January 12, a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council was held in Brussels, and on January 13, consultations ended at the Vienna site of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
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