BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has called Russia’s demands about security guarantees and about stopping the EU and NATO’s Eastward expansion unacceptable.
“Demands about security guarantees and stopping the EU and NATO’s Eastward expansion are a purely Russian agenda with completely unacceptable conditions, especially regarding Ukraine,” Borrell stated in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt.
On December 17, Russia published its projected agreements with the U.S. and NATO member states on mutual security guarantees in Europe and non-deployment of intermediate- and short-range missiles within each other’s reach. The agreements also involve a demand for NATO to refrain from further expansion, including by accepting former Soviet republics.
According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the NATO and US refusal to respond to Russia’s demand for security guarantees could lead to a new phase of confrontation.
Meanwhile, John Bolton, the former U.S. national security adviser (NSA) and a foreign policy hawk, says it’s the time for NATO to “stand up to Russia” amid growing tensions between Moscow and the military alliance.
In an article published on Tuesday, the controversy-prone senior Trump administration official listed out “misjudgments” made by the West regarding Russia and what he called Kremlin’s “hegemonic agenda”.
Bolton said the West has “made two fundamental mistakes in the years since Russia’s new flag was first raised over the Kremlin”.
“In an understandable rush to add to NATO states escaping the defunct Warsaw Pact and resuming their rightful places in the West, America, in particular, failed to delineate where the expansion would end,” the former Trump aide wrote, adding that the West created a “grey zone,” which is now being “exploited” by Russia.
He went on to fire a salvo at the European Union (EU), which he said believes that the “relative post-1945 peace” in the region was due to the bloc rather than the NATO alliance.