After new clashes with the West over the Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, Russia unveiled, Friday, December 17, its treaty proposals to limit the military influence of the United States and the Treaty Organization. the North Atlantic (NATO) in its neighborhood, calling on the first to negotiate “From Saturday”.
The two texts, entitled “Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation on security guarantees” and “Agreement on measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and member states” NATO, plan in particular to prohibit any further enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance as well as the establishment of American military bases in the countries of the former Soviet space.
“It is essential that the security guarantees for Russia are written down on paper and have the force of law”, said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov, presenting the documents to the press, which had been handed over this week to a senior US diplomat. He also proposed the opening of negotiations “From tomorrow, in the literal sense of the word, Saturday, December 18” and said that Moscow had proposed to the Americans that it be held in Geneva.
Mutual “total lack of trust”
According to Mr. Riabkov, these proposals are the way to restore Russian-Western cooperation in“Total lack of confidence” mutual and taking into account the policy ” agressive “ of NATO “In the vicinity of Russia”. The manager judged it to be “Relaunch the relationship from a blank page”.
Among other obligations, these treaties would prohibit the United States from creating military bases in any non-NATO ex-USSR country or even“Use their infrastructure for any military activity or to develop bilateral military cooperation”. All members of the Atlantic Alliance would also pledge never to expand NATO again – including Ukraine – and not to conduct any “Military activity on the territory of Ukraine and in other countries of Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia”.
Washington, NATO and the European Union accuse Moscow of having massed tens of thousands of troops on the borders of Ukraine and of preparing a military operation. The West is thus threatening Russia with unprecedented sanctions in the event of an invasion, but seem to exclude any military intervention.
For its part, the Kremlin rejects these accusations and says on the contrary that Russia is under threat from NATO, which is arming Kiev and increasing the deployments of air and sea assets in the Black Sea region.