MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Russia received some verbal answers on security guarantees and would like to know why the West deems some of Moscow’s initiatives unacceptable, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told journalists on Wednesday.
"We have already received some answers to our questions, verbally so far. Yet we would like to know why our proposals are unacceptable," he said.
"I would like to emphasize once again that if we begin to review them (the proposals - TASS), provision by provision, point by point, it will be impossible to object to them because each one of them really leads to the boosting of security, the lifting of military pressure, and, as I have already mentioned, to the opportunity to finally switch to the more rational ways of ensuring security than creating threats and counter-threats that is now happening on the so-called eastern flank," the senior diplomat added.
The senior diplomat noted that the currently calm areas from the point of view of military security, above all, the Baltics and the Black Sea region, due to NATO expansion are turning into a zone of military rivalry which neither side needs.
"I will stress once again: we, of course, will carefully study [the responses to Russian proposals on the part of the West] and will determine our further steps," he noted.
On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Moscow and Washington on security guarantees and the measures of ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states. The proposed measures include guarantees that NATO will not advance eastward, including the accession of Ukraine and other countries into the alliance, as well as the non-deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones.