Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden (PHOTO/XINHUA)
MOSCOW – Russia has unveiled an array of security proposals that it wants to agree with the United States and NATO after handing them over to a senior US diplomat this week.
The proposals were published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website in two separate draft documents, a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO members.
According to the 8-article draft treaty, both Russia and the US shall not undertake actions nor participate in or support activities that affect the security of each other.
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In Washington, a senior administration official said the United States was prepared to discuss the proposals
One should not use the territories of other countries to prepare or carry out an armed attack against the other or other actions affecting core security interests of the other, it reads.
Russia asked the United States to prevent the further eastward expansion of NATO and deny the former Soviet republics accession to the alliance.
The United States would be banned from establishing military bases in the former Soviet republics that are not NATO members, from using their infrastructure for military activity, and from developing bilateral military cooperation with them, it reads.
One would be prohibited from deploying armed forces and armaments in the areas where such deployment could threaten the other, except on its own territory, according to the draft document.
One should not deploy ground-launched intermediate- and shorter-range missiles both on and outside its national territory, from which such weapons can attack the other, it reads.
Russia and the United States would be banned from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories, and they must return such weapons already deployed outside their national territories.
It would imply the removal of US nuclear weapons from Europe and the withdrawal of multinational NATO battalions from Poland and from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that were once in the Soviet Union.
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The West has already ruled out an effective Russian veto on future NATO membership for Ukraine.
In Washington, a senior administration official said the United States was prepared to discuss the proposals. The official said Washington would respond sometime next week with more concrete proposals on the format of any talks.
NATO diplomats told Reuters that Russia cannot have a veto on further expansion of the alliance and NATO has the right to decide its own military posture.
