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US has no plans to discuss any NATO-related issues with Russia in Geneva — DoS

According to the spokesperson, Washington was not willing to engage in discussions, related to its NATO allies, in their absence

WASHINGTON, January 5. /TASS/. The United States has no plans to discuss any NATO-related issues with Russia during the Geneva talks on security guarantees, US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price has told reporters.

"When it comes to our engagement with Russia at the - in the context of the Strategic Stability Dialogue, we won’t be discussing issues that pertain to NATO, issues that pertain exclusively to Europe. We will be talking about the relatively narrow set of bilateral issues," he said, adding that Washington planned to address mostly the issues raised during the previous meetings of this format.

"The Strategic Stability Dialogue is narrowly focused on issues of, well, strategic stability," Price added.

According to the spokesperson, Washington was not willing to engage in discussions, related to its NATO allies, in their absence.

"I’ll reiterate that the SSD will be focused on bilateral matters, and we’re not going to talk above the heads of our European allies and partners," he said.

On January 10, Geneva is hosting Russian-US talks on security guarantees. On January 12, Russia is discussing its concerns in the security sphere in Europe as well as the Russian projects on security guarantees at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels and on January 13 - at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.

On December 17, 2021 the Russian Foreign Ministry published the draft agreements between Moscow and Washington on security guarantees and the measures of ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states. These drafts were submitted to Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried on December 15.

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