Former Deputy Foreign Minister Karasin on talks on security guarantees: this is an invitation to dance
Photo: Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
Grigory Karasin, the head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, called the security guarantee agreement, which Russia proposed to the United States and NATO, an invitation to dance. According to experts interviewed by Izvestia, Moscow is taking a tough stand, because otherwise it is impossible.
According to Karasin, this does not mean that Russia is not ready to discuss and revise its proposals.
“The publication of the draft agreements in the field of strategic security is an invitation to dance. In fact, this is a set of proposals that lead to making the life of the planet more calm and predictable. This is a set of principles, according to which, according to the Russian leadership, it is necessary to sit down and discuss specific obligations of the parties. The violent reaction of the Western media suggests that common sense is not all right there, ”he said.
Karasin added that Russia is therefore calmly waiting for an official reaction from Washington and the European Union (EU) to these proposals.
The representative of the European Commission (EC) Peter Stano, in turn, said that the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe have already introduced the key principles around which European security is built. He stressed that the OSCE offers mechanisms and rules that still remain the cornerstones of any interaction with Russia.
Earlier, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Russia's proposals on security guarantees in Europe did not take into account issues of concern to the United States. “We have not yet seen anything to allay our concerns,” he said. Price said Moscow has highlighted points of concern, but Washington has its own reasons for concern.
On December 20, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the Russian Federation had not yet received a response from the United States to proposals on security guarantees in Europe. The Russian Foreign Ministry published the draft agreements with the United States and NATO on December 17. According to the document, the alliance is proposed to abandon the expansion to the East and the inclusion of Ukraine in the organization, as well as the conduct of any military activity on the territory of Ukraine and other states of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.
