MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - Moscow did not see Washington's commitment to the indivisible security principle in the response from the United States to Russia's proposals on security guarantees, the Russian written reply to the U.S. concerning proposals on security guarantees says.
"We did not see a confirmation in the U.S. reply that the American side is fully committed to abiding by the indisputable principle of indivisible security," the document circulated on Thursday and translated from Russian by Interfax says.
"The general statements that the U.S. takes this postulate into account go directly against Washington's unwillingness to abandon the counterproductive and destabilizing course toward gaining advantage to itself and its allies at the expense of Russia's security interests," it said.
"This is exactly what is happening as a result of the unrestrained pursuit by the North Atlantic alliance, with the U.S. in the leading role, of a policy of unrestricted geostrategic and military penetration into the post-Soviet area, including Ukrainian territory, which is a particularly sensitive matter for us. All of this is happening immediately near Russian boundaries. Hence, our red lines and fundamental security interests have been ignored, and Russia's unalienable right to promote them has been rejected. Certainly, this is unacceptable to us," the document says.
"The reply we have received mentions Washington's commitment to the indivisible security concept," it said.
"However, the text narrows it to the right of countries to be
'free to choose or change their security arrangements, including treaties of alliance'. This freedom is not absolute and constitutes only half of the well-known formula stipulated in the Charter for European Security, whose second part says that, in exercising this right, states 'will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states'. We cannot view the February 10 letter received from NATO as a reply to the message forwarded by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on January 28, 2022. We asked for an answer to be given in a national capacity," the document says.