The United States and NATO are ready for further dialogue with Russia, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.
“Good to speak with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following NATO-Russia Council this week. The U.S. and NATO are united and ready for further reciprocal dialogue with Russia,” Blinken tweeted.
https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1482207172234784772
On Monday, Russia and the United States held a new round of dialogue on strategic stability in Geneva. It was followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels. It was followed on Thursday by consultations at the Vienna site of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The main focus of these discussions was the security proposals that the Russian side presented to the US and NATO at the end of last year against the background of the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine.
At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security assurances. Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further NATO expansion to the east, joining the Ukrainian bloc, and establishing military bases in post-Soviet countries.
On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in an interview with the RTVI television channel, said, in particular, that Russia is now the main opponent of NATO only because it is trying to firmly defend its interests. The Russian diplomat also said the US and its allies are refusing to satisfy Russia’s key points in its security proposals.