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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Says U.S. and Russia Have Agreement on Talks

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EIRNS—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded on Dec. 22 to the comment of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on upcoming meetings between the U.S. and Russia. In an exclusive interview with RT’s television channel, Lavrov was asked about any responses from the U.S. on Russia’s proposed security agreement: “Speaking about the real reaction, not the rhetorical one, I would say it’s businesslike on the side of our American colleagues. There was a series of conversations on the level of the presidents’ foreign policy aides, and, as a result of the contact, there was an agreement on organizational models for future work.”

At Dec. 21 press conference, Blinken had described the U.S. approach to Russia as combining deterrence and diplomacy. “We have said and Russia has also said that we’re prepared to engage diplomatically through multiple channels, the existing Strategic Stability Dialogue that we have with Russia between Russia and the United States, through the NATO‑Russia Council on issues of particular concern to NATO, and through the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that has as its members among others all of our European allies and partners Ukraine, the United States, and Russia. And I think you’ll see relatively early in the new year engagements in all of those areas to see if we can advance the differences diplomatically.” Blinken concluded regarding Russia’s security concerns and the U.S. concerns with Russia: “All that will be on the table. And if we can make our way forward diplomatically, that is far preferable.”

TASS reported that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried—who on Dec. 15 had received Russia’s draft security treaty proposal during a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov—told a special press briefing by telephone on Dec. 21. She said, according to the State Department transcript, responding to a question from the Wall Street Journal: "On the … question, about how we’re moving forward on engaging with Russia diplomatically, specifically on the European security proposals that they’ve put on the table, what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan shared in his call with Russian President Foreign Policy Advisor Ushakov yesterday is that we are ready to move out on these multiple channels, which I mentioned: bilateral engagement, NATO-Russia Council, and the OSCE.

“On the bilateral engagement, we will decide on a date together with Russia, and we believe that that will take place in January. In the NATO context, there is a meeting of the North Atlantic Council today, and our understanding is that in the NATO context … the conversation will be specifically about this issue of NATO inviting Russia to a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. And then the OSCE will also be moving forward on deciding the modalities that would work best for such a conversation in the OSCE.

“So don’t have any specific dates to share with you today, but my sense is that we will be seeing movement in these channels in the month of January.” (https://www.state.gov/telephonic-press-briefing-with-dr-karen-donfried-assistant-secretary-of-state-bureau-of-european-and-eurasian-affairs/) [dea/dms]

Read: Putin Speaks with Scholz, Macron, and Modi About Russia’s Treaty Proposals