MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. The administration of US President Joe Biden intends to send Russia a written response to proposals on security guarantees as soon as Wednesday, CNN reported, citing sources.
Administration officials, who weren’t identified, said the response would set forth the general areas where the US is willing to engage with Russia, such as arms control, greater transparency, risk reduction and the placement of missile systems, the report said. The response will contain slightly more in-depth details than what Washington has said publicly, the officials explained.
As the US was developing the response, it consulted with allies including Ukraine over the last few weeks, the report said. That’s partly why the US has held off on providing the response until now.
It’s reported that the US does not plan to make the proposal public, but US officials don’t rule out that Russia could publish the document upon receiving it.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the State Duma earlier on Wednesday that Russia won’t publish a US response on security guarantees, if asked, but will disclose the general meaning of the answers.
On December 17 last year, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements on security guarantees addressed to the US and NATO, which say NATO won’t expand eastward, deny membership to Ukraine and limit deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones.