MOSCOW, Dec 23 - RIA Novosti. Russia has offered the United States specific dates for the start of a dialogue on security guarantees, and is waiting for Washington's response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
On the eve of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that there is a certain understanding between the Russian Federation and the United States about the need to engage in three tracks of negotiations on security guarantees - bilateral between Moscow and Washington, dialogue with NATO, as well as discussion of this issue on the OSCE platform. He stressed that there is still "a lot of work" to be done on the content. It is expected that the first rounds of negotiations with the United States and NATO may take place in January.
"Discussions and conversations should be followed by concrete steps. Therefore, we are still waiting for a concrete response from the American side when it is ready to launch a bilateral dialogue with us. Our proposals, including on the timing of the launch of such a dialogue, have been made to the American side," Ryabkov said in an interview with the International Life magazine.
He recalled that the Russian side had said from the very beginning that "without pauses, without delays, it was immediately ready to enter into this dialogue."
"But, I understand, now Christmas has prevented them. Then, probably, there will be some short pause between the Catholic Christmas and the New Year, but it can no longer be postponed. Let's still deal with this serious issue. As the Americans themselves would say, their expression in the "tracing paper" into Russian: here and now," the deputy minister explained.
Russia published last week draft treaties with the United States and agreements with NATO member states, 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, including at the expense of the former republics of the USSR. As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told 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.
