Brussels. December 10th. INTERFAX - NATO is ready to discuss with Russia topics that cause it concern, but it cannot be about depriving Ukraine and other countries of the right to decide independently whether to join the alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
"We are ready to negotiate. However, compromises are impossible with regard to the right of countries to choose their own path," he said at a press conference on Friday evening, answering a question about whether the alliance is ready to meet Russia halfway and, by canceling past decisions, guarantee that Ukraine will not become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Earlier on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the course taken by the West to draw Ukraine into NATO creates unacceptable threats to Russia's security, provokes serious military risks for all parties involved.
The statement of the Russian ministry says that Western colleagues claim "that the issue of Ukraine's hypothetical membership in NATO concerns exclusively Kiev and the alliance, and no one should interfere in this process."
