MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Moscow hopes to receive soon a written response from the United States regarding Russia’s recently proposed security guarantees, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"We haven’t yet received a written response to our questions," Peskov told a news briefing. "We hope to receive it these days."

Peskov also noted that the January 21 meeting of Russian and American top diplomats in Geneva was extremely important in view of the previous three rounds of talks and the formulation of a response on behalf of the United States and NATO.

"We should refrain from saying anything at the moment," he said. "The agenda is very clear and we should wait until Friday."

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Soloviev Live YouTube channel earlier in the day that work was underway on the agenda of a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Antony Blinken in Geneva on January 21.

On Tuesday, a high-ranking representative of the US Department of State said that Washington presumed that the upcoming Geneva meeting of the US State Secretary and the Russian top diplomat would continue diplomatic interaction on security issues and may facilitate mutual understanding.

Negotiations on security guarantees

On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a draft agreement on security guarantees between Russia and the United States and a draft agreement on ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states.

Consultations on the issue took place in Geneva on January 10, followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on January 12 and a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Permanent Council in Vienna on January 13.