Russia, NATO’s refusal to join Ukraine and other ex-Soviet countries; It published drafts of security agreements demanding it end its military deployment in Central and Eastern Europe. Russia’s demands have so far been rejected by the United States and its allies.
Documents submitted to the US and its allies earlier this week demand that US and Russian warships and aircraft be banned from sending to areas where they could attack each other’s territory, and that alliance exercises near Russia should be abandoned.
However, the demands seem likely to be rejected by the United States and its allies, who have emphasized that Russia has no say in NATO’s expansion. NAO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that any security talks with Moscow must take into account the concerns of the Alliance and involve Ukraine and other partners.
Drafts of the agreement were published amid tensions as Russia has deployed troops on the Ukrainian border and Kiev and the West have raised concerns about a possible invasion. Moscow denies plans to attack its neighbor; however, it demands that the West provide a set of legal guarantees that prevent NATO from expanding and deploying its weapons in these countries by incorporating Ukraine and other Russian neighbors into the alliance. NATO rejects this request.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow’s relations with the United States and NATO allies were approaching a “dangerous point”, noting that alliance deployments and exercises near Russia pose “unacceptable” threats to the country’s security.
The Russia-US security pact and Russia-NATO security agreement drafts include obligations to withdraw arms and avoid near-border exercises between Moscow and alliance members.
Ryabkov told reporters that Moscow recommended that the United States immediately start negotiations on the drafts in Geneva.
What are the details of the drafts?
The drafts include placing Washington and its allies under an obligation to halt NATO’s eastward expansion to include other former Soviet republics, and to revoke membership promises to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008. It also aims to prevent the United States and its allies from establishing military bases on the territory of Ukraine, Georgia and other non-NATO former Soviet countries.
The draft agreement with NATO also includes a striking demand for the abolition of the alliance’s troop deployments in Central and Eastern Europe. In the draft, it is reminded that in 1997, before the eastward expansion of NATO began, the parties agreed not to deploy troops in areas other than where the parties could not agree.
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999. These countries were followed in 2004 by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the former Soviet republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In the following years, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia also became members and the number of members of the alliance increased to 30.
The draft agreement with Washington also includes a ban against the deployment of US and Russian warships and aircraft “in areas where they can strike targets on the opposing side’s territory.”
Moscow has long been bothered by the patrol flights of US strategic bombers close to the Russian borders. The Kremlin also describes the deployment of US and NATO warships in the Black Sea as destabilizing and provocative.
The draft also envisions a commitment not to deploy medium-range missiles in areas where they could hit the other side’s territory. The United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987, on August 2, 2019, claiming that Russia violated the agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin brought up the demand for a security guarantee in a video call with US President Joe Biden last week. During the call, Biden expressed his concern at the build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and warned that Moscow would face “grave consequences” if it attacked its neighbor.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said today that the alliance has received draft agreements, and that any dialogue with Moscow should be “based on NATO’s concerns about Russia’s actions, based on fundamental principles and documents on European security, and consultation with NATO’s European partners such as Ukraine.” He said it should be in.
Stoltenberg also noted that 30 NATO countries are “ready to work to strengthen confidence-building measures if Russia takes concrete steps to reduce tensions.”
US intelligence officials argue that Russia has dispatched 70,000 troops to the Ukrainian border and is preparing for a possible invasion early next year. Moscow denies its intention to attack and accuses Ukrainian officials of planning an attack to retake control of rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Ukraine also denies this claim.
Tensions have been high in the region since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and supported separatists in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. More than 14 thousand people lost their lives in the clashes that have been going on for seven years in Donbas between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed separatists.