Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.kyivpost.com
Russia could conclude nonaggression pacts with individual NATO member states as part of a new European security framework being discussed during the Ukraine peace process, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Alexey Drobinin, a senior diplomat at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, presented the proposal at a security conference in Moscow as Russian negotiators described European security as the central issue during two days of talks in Abu Dhabi.
The proposal was one of several arrangements Drobinin outlined.
“Agreements of this kind could be reached, among other things, with individual NATO member states,” Drobinin said, according to Reuters, citing video of his speech.
He said those countries could receive additional individual security guarantees from Russia.
3 possible arrangements
Drobinin presented three potential models for security agreements.
The first involved a collective defense alliance or bilateral mutual assistance agreements, similar to Russia’s arrangements with Belarus and North Korea.
The second consisted of political commitments not to assist the other party’s adversaries in the event of aggression. He cited Moscow’s pact with Iran as an example.
The third option was bilateral mutual nonaggression pacts, which he said could include agreements with individual NATO members.
Broader security debate enters Ukraine talks
Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, said on Wednesday that a new European security framework had been the central theme of the two-day negotiations in Abu Dhabi.
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The US envoys said they see “certain opportunities” after two days of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US.
The Ukraine peace talks resumed this week for the first time since February. Medinsky said there had been some progress but did not disclose details of the security discussions.
Medinsky described the European security system as the central topic of the talks, saying the participants had found common ground on some points. He said Russia supported discussing how security would be maintained after the war ends and argued that the conflict had exposed serious weaknesses in Europe’s existing arrangements.
The system needed to be treated as a whole, he said, adding that “a Band-Aid won’t be enough.”
Any new security framework should be fair and should not come at the expense of other countries, Medinsky said.
Russian representatives raised Moscow’s proposals for restructuring Europe’s security architecture, which Russian President Vladimir Putin presented during talks with then-US President Joe Biden in December 2021.
At the time, Moscow demanded, among other things, an end to NATO expansion, a reduction in the Alliance’s military presence in countries that joined after 1997, and restrictions on military cooperation with non-NATO post-Soviet states, including Ukraine.
