Lack of NATO response to Russian security proposals and strengthening measures confidence is evidenced by the bloc’s reluctance to cooperate with Russia to de-escalate tensions. This was announced on Tuesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a joint press conference following talks with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto.
“We talked about our dialogue with members of the North Atlantic Alliance on security, confidence-building and told about what proposals we submitted to NATO members more than a year ago and to which no response has yet been received”, — He noted. “Russia concludes that plans of NATO how to develop and implement specific deescalation and confidence-building measures with us”.
The Russian Foreign Minister expressed regret that NATO’s position is “confirmed by the practical actions of the North Atlantic Alliance, especially the United States, which is beginning to conduct the largest Defender-20 exercise in decades”.
“We spoke at length about the situation in the Baltic Sea region, including in the context of the implementation of the Finnish President’s initiative on confidence measures in the area”, — Lavrov said. “Russia does not see any problems in the region which could require a military solution. Our proposals remain on the table, let’s hope that common sense will prevail in NATO”.
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