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Russia is not going to unilaterally build up arms – Grushko
Russia will not build up military groups in Europe as long as NATO members do the same, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Interfax on Thursday.
“Russia does not have plans to build up its military presence in Europe, if of course NATO members do not try to build up their military presence,” Grushko said.
Russia is going to continue a dialogue on the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, which Russia will suspend on December 13, the diplomat said.
"We are ready to use all platforms, including the NATO-Russia Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as well as bilateral contacts with leading CFE Treaty signatories, for a relevant dialogue," Grushko said.
The CFE Treaty will be discussed at the ministerial meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels on December 7, he said.
"The state of affairs of Russian-NATO relations, cooperation between Moscow and the alliance, as well as the most acute international issues, including the situation surrounding the CFE Treaty, Kosovo and Afghanistan will be discussed," Grushko said.
"Of course, we will touch on 'painful' points of our relations with NATO, in particular the alliance's transformation and its expansion," Grushko said.
As far the future of a Russian-NATO project on missile defense in the theater of military operations depends is concerned, it is, to a large extent, depends on results of Russian-U.S. missile defense talks, the deputy foreign minister said.
"Of course, we cannot consider this project separately from the case of the U.S. missile defense project. It is clear that if the U.S. project is implemented the way the U.S. side has announced, the European security architecture, including the missile defense area, will change dramatically," the high-ranking diplomat said.
"A missile defense project developed during the NATO-Russia Council could become the core of a totally new security system, which the Russian president has spoken about before," Grushko said.
Moscow is prepared to consider the possibility of finalizing an agreement with NATO on military transit to Afghanistan through Russian territory, although it believes it would be more efficient to conclude such an agreement between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Grushko said.
"As regards to an agreement with NATO, we could theoretically consider such a possibility. We proceed from the assumption that it would be more efficient to conclude such an agreement not between Russia and NATO but between NATO and the CSTO," he said.
"The CSTO plays an large role in issues of transit and in providing a positive effect on the situation of Afghanistan's security and we believe the combination of the two organizations' efforts would have a [positive] effect," Grushko said.
Russia earlier finalized bilateral agreements with France and Germany on transits of military personnel and materiel through its territory to Afghanistan, Grushko said. "We are approaching the final phase in drafting an identical agreement with Spain now," the diplomat said.
"We would also like issues of Russian transit through NATO countries' territories to be resolved along with those regarding transit through Russian territory," Grushko said. In particular, "the matter involves the long-standing issue of transit of weapons and military hardware from the Kaliningrad region through Lithuania," Grushko said.
"We hope NATO will make efforts to resolve this long-standing issue," the Russian diplomat said.
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