GENEVA, January 9. /TASS/. The confirmed readiness to work on Moscow’s proposals will be a positive result of the upcoming contacts between Russia and the US and NATO on security guarantees, 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.
"The lack of denial of the set of priorities that we have formulated, and the readiness to work on them would be a positive result for us," he said when asked a respective question.
"Deputy Minister Alexander Fomin [represents] the military from our side," the diplomat 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.
The Russian Foreign Ministry made public drafts of a Russian-US treaty on security guarantees and an agreement on measures to ensure the security of Russia and NATO member-states on December 17.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on NATO to begin substantive talks on reliable long-term security guarantees to Russia. He stressed that Moscow needs legally binding guarantees because the West has failed to fulfill its verbal commitments.