GENEVA, January 21. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday his meeting with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, will help the United States issue a response to Russia’s security guarantee initiatives.

When asked about the duration of his meeting with Blinken, Lavrov said, "In principle, punctuality cannot be a bad sign, so, as you said, we planned a 90-minute meeting because we knew what we were going to discuss."

"We did not need to repeat everything that had been said at the Russian-US talks here, in Geneva, on January 10 and at the talks during the Russia-NATO Council meeting on January 12. And, naturally, we did not repeat that. We have heard the United States’ first reaction, oral so far, to what was discussed in those two formats at the level of our deputies. And the reaction, as the US side told us when asking to organize this meeting, was preliminary. We have been warned about that and it was accompanied by some follow-up question to us, the answers to which will help the US side, as Antony Blinken told me over the phone several days ago, to prepare a written response to our written draft agreements with the United States and with NATO. As a matter of fact, this is what happened today," Lavrov said.

On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the draft agreements between Moscow and Washington on security guarantees and measures for ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states.

Russia-US and Russia-NATO talks on security guarantees were held last week. On January 10, Geneva hosted Russia-US consultations on these matters. On January 12, a Russia-NATO Council meeting was held in Brussels, and a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council was held in Vienna on the following day.