The head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said in an interview with the Welt newspaper that Russia’s demands on security guarantees and an end to the eastward expansion of the EU and NATO are “a purely Russian agenda with completely unacceptable conditions.”
“Demands on security guarantees and an end to the expansion of the EU and NATO to the east is a purely Russian agenda with completely unacceptable conditions, especially with regard to Ukraine,” RIA Novosti quotes Borrell.
The head of European diplomacy noted that for the first time Russia presented “its agenda in writing.” According to him, “only the winners do this: they say that this and that are my conditions.” Borrell added that the negotiations should touch upon not only the issue of Ukraine and the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east, but also “all violations of the treaty since the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975.”
“We disagree with many events in Russia’s foreign policy, as well as with some events that Moscow considers to be an internal affair […] Moscow wants to negotiate on a European security architecture without the participation of the European Union,” he concluded.