MOSCOW, Dec 22 - RIA Novosti. At the very beginning of 2022, the first round of negotiations between Russia and the United States on security guarantees will take place, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Following the results of the next contact, the organizational modalities of further work were essentially agreed upon. It was agreed that at the very beginning of next year, the first round should be a bilateral contact between our and American negotiators," Lavrov said in an interview with RT.
Russia has previously published draft agreements with the United States and the NATO agreement, which include, in particular, provisions on mutual security guarantees in Europe, on the non-deployment of medium-range and shorter-range missiles in each other's reach and the rejection of further expansion of NATO to the east, including at the expense of the former republics of the USSR.
The documents have already been handed over to Washington and its allies. One of the points of the draft is that NATO should provide guarantees of non-expansion of the alliance into the territory of Ukraine. As Ryabkov stated earlier to RIA Novosti, if NATO and the United States do not respond to Russia's demand for security guarantees, this could lead to a new round of confrontation.
