The official stated during an interview that talks with the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on security issues have not been concluded yet.

He recalled that Western countries spent more than a month studying the proposals included in the draft treaty with Washington and in accordance with the Atlantic Alliance, from which Moscow received responses on January 26th.

In Lavrov’s opinion, the views of the counterparts are written “in that Western style, they overshadow many things, but there are rational grains in secondary issues” that were of great importance at certain stages, such as the problem that arose following the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), on August 2nd, 2019.

He recalled that at that time the president, Vladimir Putin, sent a message to all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, proposing to join the Russian moratorium to agree on verification measures for these weapons.

The head of Moscow diplomacy stressed that this call was ignored, however, it is now included among the proposals contained in the responses of the West.

He cited that Russia’s previously dismissed initiatives of distancing the maneuvers on both sides of the border, agreing on a maximum distance for the approach of combat aircraft and warships and various other measures of relaxation, de-escalation and promotion of the trust, were raised once again.

pgh/llp/acl/mml