White House: Russia to negotiate with NATO and OSCE on January 12th and 13th
The first round of negotiations between the United States and Russia on security guarantees will be held in Geneva on January 10 next year, AFP and TASS news agency reported on the 28th (local time).
A White House National Security Council spokesperson told AFP news agency that negotiations with Russia will begin on January 10 next year on the agenda of controlling nuclear arms and reducing the level of military tensions over Ukraine.
Negotiations between Russia and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO) are scheduled to take place on January 12 next year, two days later, and negotiations between Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are scheduled to take place on January 13, he added.
OSCE is a pan-European security consultative body that includes NATO member states, former Soviet Union states and all European countries.
According to the TAS news agency, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also confirmed that “in Geneva on the 10th, discussions between the US and the US will proceed in the expectation that negotiations on the (security) agreement proposed by our side will take place.”
Geneva, Switzerland is where Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden met for the first time in June.
Ryabkov also said that Russia-NATO talks will take place in Brussels, Belgium on the 12th.
“At the negotiating table, Russia will present its concerns, and we will also present concerns regarding Russia’s activities,” a NSC spokesperson said.
“It is impossible to reach an agreement in one day, but the negotiation process cannot be prolonged,” Ryabkov said. “The matter is very urgent and very serious.”
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov’s YouTube channel Solovyov Live, a famous conservative local journalist, “Negotiations between Russia and the United States on security guarantees will begin immediately after the New Year’s holiday.” there is a bar
Given that Russia’s New Year’s holiday is January 1-9, Lavrov’s remarks were interpreted as implying that negotiations would take place on January 10.
In an interview on the same day, Minister Lavrov introduced that representatives of the foreign and defense ministries of the two countries would participate in negotiations between the US and Russia.
Earlier, Vice Minister Ryabkov said in an interview with his foreign magazine International Life the day before that he would be the representative for security guarantee negotiations with the US side, and that the US representative is highly likely to become Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
The deal comes in response to the growing possibility of a military clash over Ukraine.
Recently, military tensions have escalated between the U.S. and Ukrainians as they claim that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine early next year after deploying about 100,000 troops and weapons to neighboring Ukraine.
Russia has refuted this claim that military movement within its own country is entirely a sovereign decision, and there is no problem with it, and that the West is waging a war of propaganda to rationalize its military support to Ukraine.
At the same time, in order to relieve tensions around Ukraine, the US and NATO have been asking the US and NATO to sign a security guarantee document stipulating the prohibition of additional NATO membership by former Soviet countries, including Ukraine, and the ban on NATO deployment of weapons in Ukraine and neighboring regions.
President Putin formally raised such a request in a videoconference with President Biden on the 7th, and on the 15th, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted the draft security guarantee treaty between Russia and the US and the draft security guarantee agreement between Russia and NATO member states to the United States. forwarded to the side.
Russia has since urged the United States and NATO to initiate related negotiations as soon as possible.
/yunhap news
