Russia To Weigh New Security Talks After Seeing Written Responses From US, NATO - Envoy

Russia is yet to see any significant results of this week's security talks with the United States and NATO and will wait for their written responses to its security proposals to decide whether further meetings are necessary, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2022) Russia is yet to see any significant results of this week's security talks with the United States and NATO and will wait for their written responses to its security proposals to decide whether further meetings are necessary, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said.

"It must be admitted that the discussions held last week with the United States and NATO have not yet yielded any significant results. We expect written responses from Washington and Brussels to our draft agreements. Based on them, we will make a decision on the advisability of further joint work. We are also ready to discuss counter proposals," he told Newsweek in an interview out Saturday.

Antonov said the talks aimed to preserve peace in Europe by building on Moscow's proposals to work out new security guarantees. Russia requested legally binding guarantees after seeing NATO expand eastward and holding military drills annually near its borders.

"As the block approaches our proper, the flight time of NATO air and missile weapons to Moscow, St.

Petersburg and other cities in the European part of the country is reduced. How would the US Government react if Washington, New York or Los Angeles were 'under the bomb-sight'?" he said.

Russia sees NATO's creeping expansion, which has come in five waves since the fall of the Soviet Union, as a national security threat, the diplomat said. He warned about the risk of escalation and direct military confrontation in the post-Soviet space and beyond.

"Everything has its limits. We are, in fact, on the edge of precipice," the ambassador told the magazine, adding that the draft proposals were meant to prevent the situation from spinning out of control.

Senior US and Russian diplomats held a strategic stability dialogue in Geneva on Monday, followed by Russia-NATO talks in Brussels on Wednesday and a meeting of Russian negotiators and representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday. Antonov said Ukraine was only briefly mentioned during the Russia-NATO consultations.