US ready to discuss with Russia non-deployment of American missiles in Ukraine
WASHINGTON, January 9. /TASS/. The United States is ready to discuss with Russia the non-deployment of American missiles in Ukraine, progress in this area is possible, a high-ranking US administration official announced on Saturday. He said this during a special telephone briefing for reporters ahead of on the upcoming Russian-American security talks.
“Russia has said it feels threatened by the prospect of offensive missile systems being placed in Ukraine. As President Biden told President Putin, the United States has no intention of doing that. So, this is one area where we may be able to reach an understanding if Russia is willing to make a reciprocal commitment,” the official said.
“Russia has also expressed an interest in discussing the future of certain missile systems in Europe, along the lines of the INF Treaty, which receive Russia violated and the previous US administration withdrew from. We are open to discussing this possibility as well,” he added.
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Without security guarantees Russia will have to “deter opponents”, says diplomat
GENEVA, January 9. /TASS/. In the event of the failure to reach agreements on security guarantees Moscow will be forced to turn to other means of ensuring the necessary balance of forces and “deterring opponents,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS on Sunday.
“NATO declares indivisibility [of security] only in the format of its ‘gathering’, being vain of this fact – just listen to the statements made by NATO representatives, read their documents. But we have not committed ourselves to all this, with another line and the basic agreement being obvious to us. This means that in a situation similar to the current one the misinterpreted strengthening of the west’s own security will turn into the weakening of this security because we will be forced to turn to other means of ensuring the necessary balance, of deterring the opponent, if you will, in the event of the lack of required and urgent agreement on legal guarantees,” he said.
It would be na·ve to expect progress on the issues of security guarantees at the upcoming talks between Russia and the US and NATO given the western partners’ public position before the meeting, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who has arrived for the Russian-US talks on security guarantees, said.
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