MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is taking an arrogant and provocative stance by pursuing an open-door policy that pushes neutral countries to join NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday at a news conference following talks with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio.
"This is an arrogant position [of NATO], at the same time it is directly provocative because it is designed to push neutral countries to knock on this very open door," he said.
Lavrov said the alliance had earlier rejected Russia's desire to legally enshrine the principle of the indivisibility of security, rejecting Moscow "after long attempts to dodge any discussion at all."
"NATO said it was out of the question because legal security guarantees can only be given within NATO, to no one else," he added.
Russia and the US are negotiating Moscow’s security guarantees on behalf of NATO. Several rounds of consultations in various formats have already been held, but no agreements have been announced. At the same time, the West says that the discussion is designed to prevent what it calls Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine, which is being prepared.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. He did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such claims and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.