MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Russia is open to dialogue with the West provided that it is equal and both parties’ concerns are taken into account, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.

"We are open to dialogue per se. It should be equal and the interests and concerns of both parties should be taken into account. This idea was not developed especially for NATO, this is our position, and then again, it’s not ‘know-how,’ it is reflected in the international legal agreements that we view as crucial, first and foremost, in the UN Charter," Zakharova noted.

At the same time, she pointed out that NATO remained focused on containing Russia. "The alliance has made it perfectly clear that containing Russia is a priority. It impacts military build-up plans, drills, and the construction of infrastructure facilities, as well as the organization’s cooperation programs with its partners," the diplomat added.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry released draft agreements on the security guarantees that Moscow expects to receive from Washington and NATO. 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. The United States and NATO handed their written responses to Russia’s security proposals over to Moscow on January 26. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 1 that the US and NATO had failed to take Russia’s key demands into account.