MOSCOW, Dec 27 - RIA Novosti. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov called the track of the Russia-NATO negotiations on security guarantees very important.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance intends to convene the Russia-NATO Council on January 12. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Moscow is working on the alliance's proposal, it is necessary to resolve a number of issues.
"This is a very important track of negotiations, of course, in two projects - the draft treaty and the draft agreement, which were transferred first to the American side, and then to a number of European capitals, there really is an initiative of Russia related to the North Atlantic alliance," Peskov told reporters in response to a question about what Russia expects from these negotiations.
According to him, it makes sense to use the direction of negotiations between Russia and NATO in addition to the Russian-American track of negotiations in this regard.
"These will be important negotiations and very, very responsible. The details are still being finalized," Peskov added.
On December 17, Russia published 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 intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in each other's reach and the refusal to further expand NATO, including at the expense of the former Soviet republics. 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.
