DECR chairman gives assessment to the first stage of the negotiations on security between representatives of the Russian Federation and the West

On the air of the Church and the World program, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate gave an assessment to the first stage of the negotiations on security between the Russian Federation and the West, which took place on January 10, in Geneva.

At these negotiations Russia insisted that she should be given legally obligatory guarantees on several points: that NATO will not accept new members and disavow the intention voiced at the 2008 Summit in Bucharest to accept Ukraine and Georgia in the alliance; that the organization will abandon the material-technical development of the countries, which have joined the alliance after the Founding Russia-NATO Act was signed in 1997 as this development threatens the Russian Federation; that the military bloc will not deploy armaments capable of hitting targets in the Russian territory. As of January 10, only the last one of these three items remained to be discussed.

“The sides dealt with three items, failing to reach an agreement on two of them but will continue negotiating on the remaining one. In my view, it is already something because in the situation of confrontation that has developed between the two great powers, any concessions already show that the sides are ready to meet half way”, the DECR head said.

“It is quite natural that Russia should insist on certain security guarantees so that the NATO armaments could not be deployed right at her borders and targeted at Russian cities”, Metropolitan Hilarion emphasized, “If they manage to reach mutual understanding on this point at the next stages of the negotiations, then it in itself will give a cause for optimism. So far it is too soon to speak of the results because results as such are absent, but an important process has begun, which will be continued, and let us hope that it will lead to success”.

DECR Communication Service

Print publication

DECR chairman gives assessment to the first stage of the negotiations on security between representatives of the Russian Federation and the West

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons

Patriarch

Department Chairman

Sermons