MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been making inadequate statements in connection with Russia’s security guarantee proposals, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the RT television channel in an interview on the international agenda.

"Mr. Stoltenberg - NATO’s Secretary-General - keeps making some not very appropriate statements. He is about to step down, though. His term of office is expiring this year," Lavrov said. "When Mr. Stoltenberg says loudly and rather arrogantly that nobody is in the position to violate the principle of the Washington treaty, which keeps the door open to any potential aspirant eager to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, he should remember that we are not a participant in that organization, that we are not signatory to that treaty, but that we are signatories to a broader regional Euro-Atlantic document, which contains the principle of the indivisibility of security. If Mr. Stoltenberg thinks that NATO is free to discard this principle, which is enshrined in documents adopted at the summit level, then possibly the time is ripe for him to seek new employment, because he is certainly no good for his current job."

Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that he was ready for a dialogue with Russia and was going to convene a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council early next year. At the same time, he said that NATO would never compromise with Russia on the issue of the alliance’s expansion, as well as Ukraine’s right to "decide on its path" and the right of the NATO member-states to defend the whole alliance.

Earlier, Stoltenberg confirmed the receipt of Russia’s proposals for security guarantees in Europe, adding that the alliance would study them. The Russian Foreign Ministry on December 17 made public its drafts of a treaty with the United States on security guarantees and of an agreement on measures to ensure the security of Russia and NATO member-states. They had been handed to the US side at a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry on December 15.