NATO FMs to discuss European security on January 07

BRUSSELS (TASS): NA-TO Foreign Ministers will hold an emergency videoconference on January 7 to discuss Russian demands on European security issu-es. This was reported on T-uesday on NATO’s Twitter.
“An extraordinary meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in a virtual format will take place on Friday, January 7. The ministers will discuss the concentration of Russian forces on the territory of Ukraine (NATO means Crimea – TASS note) and around it, and broader issues of European security,” the message says. This meeting was convened on the eve of the first Russia-NATO Council (RNC) in two and a half years on January 12, where the Russian Federation intends to discuss its requirements for European security.
In the North Atlantic Alliance on Tuesday, TASS confirmed the holding of a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12 and called on the Russian Federation “to take into account the concerns of the alliance.” The RNC last convened in the summer of 2019 without any practical results. On January 12-13, Brussels will also host a meeting of the NATO Military Committee at the level of chiefs of general staff.
“NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as Chairman of the NATO-Russia Council, convened an Russia-NATO Council meeting on January 12, 2022,” the press service said.
It emphasizes that “the dialogue with Russia should be conducted on the basis of reciprocity, respond to NATO’s concerns about Russian actions, should be based on basic principles and fundamental documents on European security and be conducted in parallel with consultations with NATO’s European partners.”
NATO has not yet clarified the agenda of the meeting.
Earlier, Russia announced its intention to discuss with NATO its initiatives in the field of European security, which include demands for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe, abandonment of the deployment of conventional NATO military forces near the borders of the Russian Federation, and the rejection of the alliance from the course of involving Ukraine and Georgia in NATO.
In turn, Stoltenberg has repeatedly stated in December that he proposes to convene the Russia-NATO Council in early 2022 “to discuss the situation in and around Ukraine”, as well as rumors about “the concentration of Russian forces near the border with Ukraine.”
On the night of December 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden held telephone conversations that lasted 50 minutes. Aide to the Russian leader, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that the Kremlin is pleased with the contact between the presidents of the two countries; in general, the direction of the conversation was constructive.
According to him, the main topic of the conversation was the upcoming negotiations on security guarantees, and the leaders agreed to keep their progress under personal control and maintain telephone contacts.
Moscow expects that the negotiations with the United States will result in legal guarantees of NATO’s refusal to move eastward and deploy threatening weapons systems near Russian borders, and the American president, as Ushakov noted, agreed with this point of view.
The Russian president warned that possible new sanctions against Russia could lead to a complete rupture of its relations with the United States and seriously damage its ties with the West as a whole.
On January 10, Russian-American talks on security issues are expected to begin in Geneva.