Lavrov: US and Russia to Hold “Three Tracks” of Talks

The first round of negotiations should start at the beginning of next year, there will be three rounds overall. Russia and the United States will hold three rounds of negotiations on “security guarantees”. Negotiations should begin in January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Russia Today on Wednesday, December 22. “There is an agreement with the United States to involve three tracks of negotiations on security guarantees,” he said. The minister considers the US reaction to Russia’s security proposals to be “businesslike”. “Regarding the real reaction, not rhetorical, I would say it is businesslike, on the part of our American colleagues. A series of conversations took place at the level of foreign policy assistants to the presidents of Russia and the United States, and following the results of the next contact, organizational modalities for further work were essentially agreed,” Lavrov said. According to him, the start of negotiations is expected in early 2022. “Following the results of the next contact, the organizational modalities of further work were essentially agreed upon. It was agreed that at the very beginning of next year, the first round should be a bilateral contact between our and American negotiators,” the Russian Foreign Minister said. According to him, in January it is planned to use a negotiating platform to discuss the second document – a draft agreement on “security guarantees” between Russia and NATO countries. Lavrov noted that Moscow considers the statements of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the topic of security guarantees “inappropriate”. “If Mr. Stoltenberg believes that NATO members have the right to spit on this principle (the principle of indivisibility of security in the Euro-Atlantic region - ed.), which is enshrined in documents adopted at the highest level, then perhaps it’s really time for him to get another job, because he can’t cope with his duties in any way,” Lavrov said. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry published drafts of the treaty on security guarantees and the agreement on measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and NATO member states. In response, the White House said that the United States would not hold consultations on the issue of security in Europe without allies in the EU, noting that they were discussing proposals with allies. Корреспондент