MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov drew the attention of his new German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, to Moscow’s commitment to building dialogue with Germany’s new government, the Russian foreign ministry said after their first telephone conversation on Tuesday.
"Key attention was focused on the exchange of views on the current state of and prospects for further development of Russian-German relations after the elections in both countries. The Russian side stressed its determination to build dialogue with Germany’s new government, which would be in the interests of the development of bilateral cooperation for the benefit of Russia’s and Germany’s peoples and in the interests of security and stability in Europe and globally," it said.
"While discussing issues on the international agenda, the Russian side stressed the necessity of security guarantees in the form of legally binding liabilities of NATO’s non-expansion eastwards and non-deployment of its military infrastructure at the Russian borders," the ministry said.
Apart from that, the Russian top diplomat explained to his German counterpart that the Minsk agreements are the sole basis for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis and Kiev must implement them. He also said that Germany, as a member of the Normandy format, should exert influence on the Ukrainian authorities in this context.
The conversation was initiated by the German side.