EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep BorrellBRUSSELS, Feb 8The response of the EU countries to the letter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on security will be coordinated and will give the EU countries the opportunity to «demonstrate unity,» said Josep Borrell, head of the Union's diplomacy. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister said that an official request would be sent through the agency to colleagues in NATO and OSCE with an urgent demand to explain how they intend to fulfill the obligation not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others, and if they do not intend to explain why. The Russian Foreign Minister noted that the response of NATO and the OSCE will be a key issue in determining further proposals, which will be reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin. «Russia sent letters to all EU countries, asking them to answer the same concerns as in the message to the United States. Thus «Russia has opened a new avenue of negotiations — with the Europeans, this time. We are working on a coordinated common response to Lavrov … This will be a good opportunity to demonstrate the unity of the EU, and also that we are not just 27 countries, but a union,» Borrell said. speaking at an event organized in the US by the French Embassy. At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the US and an agreement with NATO on security assurances. Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further eastward expansion of NATO, joining the Ukrainian bloc, and establishing military bases in post-Soviet countries. The proposals also contain a clause on the non-deployment of NATO strike weapons near the borders of Russia and the withdrawal of alliance forces in Eastern Europe to the positions of 1997. Later, the United States and NATO sent written responses to Russia's proposals on security guarantees to Moscow.
