The meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, which took place in Brussels, has ended, the meeting lasted about four hours. According to TASS, the negotiations took longer than expected.

The completed meeting was the first after more than a two-year break. The meeting in Brussels was the second stage of consultations between Russia and the West on Moscow's proposals for security guarantees. It took place in the development of the negotiations between Russia and the United States, which took place on January 9-10 in Geneva.

On the eve of the meeting, the head of the Russian delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Grushko expressed hope for "a serious, deep conversation on the key, fundamental problems of European security."

Russia insists that the alliance does not accept new members and abandoned the intention announced at the Bucharest summit in 2008 to accept Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. In addition, Moscow demands that NATO not deploy weapons near our borders capable of hitting targets on Russian territory, abandon the material and technical development that threatens Russia in the territory of countries that joined the alliance after the signing of the Russia-NATO Founding Act in 1997.

As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, Moscow expects from Brussels and Washington "a real step towards Russia."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, assured that the alliance was ready to listen to Russia's concerns and start an open and meaningful dialogue. However, he rejected the possibility of a compromise on the expansion of the alliance.

bbabo.Net