MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Russia will pursue the firm line of safeguarding its national interests and giving up unilateral concessions at talks with the United States on security guarantees, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Russia’s top diplomat spoke at the first sitting of the United Russia General Council commission on international cooperation and support of compatriots abroad that he chairs.
"We are now busy to ensure that we maximally effectively pursue the firm line of safeguarding our national interests and giving up concessions that will be unilateral and will fail to take into account the balance of interests. This is what we proceed from now that we are preparing for negotiations, first of all, with the United States," Russia’s top diplomat said.
The task of the Russian Foreign Ministry is "to create maximally favorable external conditions for developing the country, ensuring its security and raising the well-being of Russian citizens," Lavrov said.
"This was again enshrined in the Russian Constitution and the amendments adopted, which significantly strengthened the focus on safeguarding national sovereignty," the foreign minister said.
"These tasks were outlined in greater detail in Russia’s recently adopted national security strategy," Lavrov said.
"At the beginning of next year, we are due to submit to the president a new edition of the foreign policy concept where these provisions will be necessarily stipulated. We seek to take into account the foreign policy’s inter-party dimension in this document," the foreign minister said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov earlier told TASS that the Russia-US consultations on security guarantees were scheduled for January 10. The Russia-NATO consultations on security guarantees would be held in Brussels following a meeting of representatives of Moscow and Washington in Geneva, he said.
On December 17, Russia’s Foreign Ministry published drafts of an agreement with the United States on security guarantees and an agreement between Russia and the NATO member states on security measures. The drafts were handed over to US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried on December 15.