Foreign Ministry: de facto NATO refused serious dialogue on the Russian initiative on security guarantees

A briefing was held by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, during which questions were also asked to the journalist of The Moscow Post.

"For almost a year, the Russian Foreign Ministry handed over to the United States and NATO proposals on security guarantees, which also included a demand for Ukraine's membership in the alliance. Bloomberg reported that at a NATO meeting in Bucharest, they will announce that the time has not yet come for Kyiv to be admitted to the alliance. Stoltenberg promises that NATO will help Ukraine "as long as it needs." Something happened over the past year in the relations of the Foreign Ministry with the NATO Secretariat on Ukraine or other issues?, " said the first question of our journalist.

In response, Maria Zakharova recalled that NATO de facto refused at the beginning of this year from a serious dialogue on the Russian initiative on security guarantees.

And, accordingly, after that, no contacts between the Foreign Ministry and the international secretariat of the North Atlantic Alliance were carried out, she added.

In response to a question about what the prospects for the Arctic Council look like taking into account the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that in accordance with the 1996 declaration, the Arctic Council does not deal with military security issues.

"In this regard, I, frankly, do not consider it necessary in any way to directly link the prospects of the council with the entry of Sweden, Finland into the North Atlantic bloc, but it cannot be ignored that after the accession of these countries to the alliance, all member countries of the Arctic Council, except Russia, will be members of the North Atlantic bloc," she stressed.

Maria Zakharova added that this could lead to increased militarization of the Arctic region.

"Well, accordingly, this simply, in turn, would mean a significant increase in tension, security risks in high latitudes," the diplomat concluded.

"Sergei Lavrov in a recent interview called all OSCE statements about the" three spaces "from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean" idle talk. " How do you assess the future of this organization and the place of Russia in it?, " our journalist asked.

In response, Maria Zakharova urged to wait for tomorrow, recalling that tomorrow - December 1 - a press conference will be held at which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will answer journalists' questions on exactly this very topic in more detail and in detail:

"I think that there will be a lot of interesting things said on this score," Maria Zakharova emphasized.