In light of the growing tension between Russia and the West against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, EU foreign policy official Josep Borrell described Russia’s demands for security guarantees and a halt to NATO and NATO expansion. European Union to the east, as “a purely Russian agenda on totally unacceptable conditions”.
written agenda
To this, Borrell claimed in an interview with the newspaper “Welt”: “Demanding security guarantees and an end to the expansion of the European Union and NATO to the east is a purely Russian agenda on totally unacceptable terms, especially as regards Ukraine,” stressing that Moscow “presented its agenda in writing for the first time”.
He noted that the negotiations should not only concern Ukraine and NATO’s eastward expansion, but also “all violations of the treaty since the adoption of the final Helsinki Agreement in 1975”.
He added: “We disagree with many developments in Russian foreign policy, as well as with some events that Moscow considers internal affairs.”
European security architecture
He also accused Moscow of “wanting to negotiate a European security structure without the participation of the European Union”, considering that the negotiations on the European security structure and on security guarantees “are an issue that does not concern only the United States and Russia”.
He continued: “The European Union must be present in these negotiations. These negotiations will only make sense if they are implemented in close coordination with the European Union and with its participation “.
Interestingly, in mid-December the Russian Foreign Ministry published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO. The documents have already been handed over to Washington and its allies. At one point, Moscow proposes that NATO countries provide guarantees that exclude further movements in eastern direction, in particular, on the Ukrainian territory.
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