Washington sees no opportunity to reach a compromise with Russia on the issue of NATO’s eastward expansion. This statement was made in an interview with CNN by the permanent representative of the United States to the alliance Julianne Smith.
“To be honest, I don’t see much room for compromise,” she said.
According to Smith, now “no one is proposing to change the policy of the North Atlantic Alliance” in terms of its further expansion.
“Our door remains open. Nobody has the right to slam it down, ”she added, stressing that any decision on enlargement will continue to be made by the alliance and the country concerned.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements with NATO and the United States on security guarantees in Europe. According to the provisions of the document, the United States should stop creating military bases on the territory of the countries of the former Soviet Union that are not members of NATO, and the alliance should stop expanding eastward.
The day before, talks were held in Geneva with the participation of Russian-American delegations. As a result, the parties did not make progress on the issue of guarantees of non-expansion of NATO. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov spoke about this, in particular.
“On the main issue related to NATO’s non-expansion, I would say no, no improvement has been achieved,” he lamented. Ryabkov stressed that this issue is key for the national security of the Russian Federation. According to him, Russia needs concrete guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia will never become NATO members.
We add that the issue of security guarantees will be discussed tomorrow in Brussels through the Russia-NATO Council, and on Thursday within the OSCE.
You can read more about the Russian-American talks here.
Source: Rosbalt
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