Washington. December 4th. INTERFAX - Russia should not influence NATO's decisions on the expansion of the alliance, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
"The issue of new NATO members is decided by the countries that are members of the alliance, not Russia. This is how it worked in the past and will work in the future," she said at a briefing, answering a journalist's question about whether to show flexibility and listen to the calls of the Russian Federation on the issue of NATO expansion to the east.
"Now all provocations come from Russia, not from the United States and not from Ukraine," Psaki added, commenting on the situation in eastern Europe.
Earlier in December, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia cannot influence the decision on Ukraine's membership in NATO.
"The alliance said that one day Ukraine will become a member of NATO. (...) The decision on when this will happen will be made by 30 NATO allies and Ukraine," he said at a press conference in Riga on Wednesday.
"Russia does not have the right of veto, its opinion is not taken into account. It has no right to restore the principle of spheres of influence and influence neighboring countries through it," the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance added.
Stoltenberg noted that the issue of Ukraine's membership in the alliance will become relevant when this country "is ready, will meet the standards." In the meantime, according to him, NATO seeks to help Kiev in carrying out the necessary reforms.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia will insist in dialogue with the United States and NATO on developing strong agreements that exclude the advance of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east.
"Our diplomacy now has a priority task - to seek the provision of strong, reliable and long-term security guarantees. In dialogue with the United States and its allies, we will insist on developing concrete agreements that exclude any further NATO advances to the East and the deployment of weapons systems threatening us in the immediate vicinity of the territory of the Russian Federation," the president said on Wednesday at the ceremony of presentation of credentials by foreign ambassadors in the Kremlin.
