Lavrov hits out at ‘NATO-centrism’, cautions on collective EU response
Sergey Lavrov noted that all this very much resembles a unilateral approach, based on the irreparable conviction that the West is entitled to demand guarantees from Russia in a situation when no guarantees are being promised to Russia in exchange
MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. The EU is preparing a collective response to Russia’s request on the definition of the principle of indivisible security, thus a dialogue would be impossible in this case, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a joint press conference in the wake of talks with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss Thursday.
"We expect these responses from all OSCE area states. But, as far as I’ve heard, instead of providing responses from each state fair and square, the EU wants to come up with this collective paper, where all nuances of national positions will be nullified. I am certain that we won’t be able to conduct a conversation in this case. Then, I guess, we will have to think about how to come out of this situation," he said.
According to the top diplomat, the Russian side clarified to the British side that Russian forces are being deployed on Russia’s own territory, unlike hundreds of thousands of British servicemen, deployed in the Baltics, among other places.
"The response we received was: ‘you are on your own territory, and we are on our own because we all are NATO. And this NATO-centrism was present throughout our entire conversation today," Lavrov said.
"It was useful for me to understand, how indoctrinated our colleagues’ approach is to reviewing security problems on the European continent, how egoistically from the standpoint of NATO-centrism they approach Russia’s legitimate concerns regarding its own security, and how selectively they interpret their obligations, taken within the OSCE, regarding the indivisibility of security," the Russian chief diplomat said.
Lavrov noted that all this very much resembles a unilateral approach, based on the irreparable conviction that the West is entitled to demand guarantees from Russia in a situation when no guarantees are being promised to Russia in exchange.
"And this very indicative discussion is, unfortunately, likely to be repeated in the responses that we expect regarding the West’s understanding of the principle of indivisible security," he noted.