GENEVA, January 9. /TASS/. Moscow hopes to get a clearer idea of Washington’s stance on security guarantees at the upcoming security talks between Russia and the US in Geneva, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who has arrived for the Russian-US talks on security guarantees, said in an interview with TASS on Sunday.
"I would like, of course, the Geneva talks to provide us with a clearer idea of what, so to say, positioning tolerances the colleagues in Washington have. We have arrived in Geneva for that. Tolerances on the issues that we are interested in first of all," he said.
The issue is about three blocks of issues that "have been repeatedly mentioned," Ryabkov explained. "First is the guarantees of NATO’s non-expansion to the east, second is the necessity to make sure assault equipment with minimum flight time will not appear at our borders, third is the necessity from all viewpoints for NATO to return, so to say, to the initial positions of 1997 regarding its training, intelligence activities, the creation of infrastructure and so on," he said.
The beginning of the first round of Russia-US talks on security issues in Geneva is scheduled for the evening of January 9, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier, adding that it would be held in a narrow format. The work will continue in an extended format on January 10. The meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels will take place on January 12, while the talks of representatives of Russia and the OSCE in Vienna - on January 13.