MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. New contacts between Russia and NATO on security guarantees are not in the plans, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS on Wednesday.
"Currently, new contacts with NATO are not being planned," he said when asked by TASS.
"However, we constantly receive signals from our counterparts, and what is more, a variety of signals, since, if we take a look at the schedule of political contacts at the highest and high level, hardly a day goes by without presidents, heads of state or foreign ministers of NATO countries visiting Moscow," Grushko said.
Grushko pointed out that the issues related to European security and Russian proposals for security assurances are in the spotlight.
"First and foremost, it pertains to fundamental things, which are the guarantees that NATO will not advance further eastwards and that the alliance’s configuration will get back to the state it had at the time when the [NATO-Russia] Founding Act was signed in 1997," the deputy foreign minister said.
On January 26, the US and NATO submitted their written responses to Moscow’s proposals for security assurances. The US asked that the texts of these documents not be made public, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outlined their main provisions. According to these statements, the West did not make concessions that were crucial for Russia, but set out areas for further talks.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the response by the US and NATO to Moscow’s security proposals. When asked by the head of state whether there is a chance to reach an agreement on issues of concern with Western partners, the minister answered in the affirmative, saying that "there is always a chance." He added that the Russian response to the proposals of Washington and Brussels is ready. According to Lavrov, the draft is laid out on 10 pages. On Tuesday, the minister said that Russia would soon publish its response.