MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. The US and NATO haven’t shown readiness to hold talks with Russia on security guarantees, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a news conference on Friday.
"We don’t have any grounds yet to say they (the US and NATO - TASS) are ready to start talks, which we are proposing to start literally tomorrow because the issue is pressing," the diplomat said.
Ryabkov didn’t rule out the West may try to delay the talks.
"On the other coast, they excel at using tactics, procedures and processes the way they need, so that if they aren’t comfortable, substantive work doesn’t take place or gets delayed so that everything eventually comes to nothing," he said. "It’s a risk."
The diplomat said it’s very hard to agree on things when the interests of Russia, on the one hand, and the US and NATO, on the other hand, are as different as they are at the moment.
But "the responsibility of the politicians that deal with European security on the other side, I hope, is sufficient to make the only right choice and agree to the Russian proposals," he said.
Russia on Friday released draft agreements titled the Treaty Between the US and Russia on Security Guarantees and On Measures to Ensure the Security of the Russian Federation and Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The proposals were handed over to a US representative at a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry on December 15.