MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Moscow does not consider its security guarantee proposals to be excessive and will continue to seek clarification from Washington on its interpretation of the OSCE commitment that strengthening one state’s security at the expense of other states is unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
In an interview with nationwide radio stations, Russia’s top diplomat pointed out that Moscow’s proposals handed over to Washington and NATO on December 15 "may turn out to be excessive," only if an expert appraising these proposals proceeds from the following position: "the Americans have already taken away all that is around you and you still begin to somehow fuss, twitch and then go on to resign yourself to reality, being limited to some minimum."
"You know, we want our counterparts to work honestly with us. I quoted the commitments that were accepted within the OSCE framework, signed by presidents at the highest level, and I emphasize, even by the US head of state, to the effect that no state will strengthen its security at the expense of the security of others," Lavrov specified.
"The Americans say that the right to choose alliances is sacred. We say that on condition that it does not worsen the security situation of any other country and you, gentlemen, have signed it. And now that there are attempts to depict our proposals as an ultimatum, we point this out and [we] will seek to ensure that our counterparts do not evade this and are honest in how they interpret what their president signed," the Russian foreign minister emphasized.
If the US leader had signed on to the relevant commitments in due course, on the sole assumption that "Russia will never be able to secure what is promised in these documents," then Washington "has to admit that," the top diplomat pointed out.
"This will be yet another admission after they told us in response to our reminder of the verbal pledges in the 1990s not to expand NATO: we did not mean that at all and did not want to mislead you and simply acted hastily, as there were more important issues," Lavrov elaborated.
Diplomatic track
If Washington wants to discuss troop deployment, "there are issues to talk about" considering that the United States "has spread its military bases all across the world, circling the Russian Federation and the CIS and considering that it is hard to understand what the US is doing in Iraq, which has not invited it to its soil."
"We are not present with our armed forces anywhere without the invitation of the host country and we honor all those agreements that we reach with the state of our presence in full compliance with international law," the Russian foreign minister highlighted.
Russia’s top diplomat also pointed to the stance of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell who, as if under "a magic spell", repeated that they substantially hoped that Moscow would choose "the path of diplomacy."
"Let me take you at your words because we chose the path of diplomacy for decades after the Soviet Union disappeared and the Istanbul and Astana accords that I mentioned are a very significant result of this diplomacy, namely: no one will strengthen its security at the expense of the security of other states," Lavrov pointed out.
"If you favor diplomacy, then you must honor what you agreed upon," Russia’s top diplomat emphasized.
On January 26, The United States and NATO transmitted their written replies to Russia’s proposals on security guarantees, which Moscow requires from Washington and Brussels. The US side requested that the texts of these documents should not be published. However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outlined their basic provisions. These statements suggest that the West has refused to make concessions fundamental for Moscow, but indicated areas for further negotiations.