The United States intends to raise issues of invasion of neighboring countries and the use of chemical weapons on foreign soil during the forthcoming series of talks with Russia. This was announced on Wednesday at a regular briefing for reporters by the press secretary of the White House Jen Psaki.

“We and our allies will be raising these and other issues with Russia in the coming days and weeks,” she said.

Psaki added that the United States does not intend to answer point by point to the security assurance proposals that Russia had previously posted. At the same time, the American authorities believe that the parties will be able to make progress in resolving some issues. “We do not know what the talks scheduled for next week will bring, but our approach to discussions will be pragmatic, result-oriented. We believe that there are areas where we can make progress <…> if they [the Russian authorities – approx. TASS] will sit down at the negotiating table ready for this [progress], “the White House press secretary summed up.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry circulated two Russian draft documents on the provision of legal security guarantees from the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on NATO to begin substantive negotiations with the aim of providing Russia with reliable and long-term security guarantees. He clarified that it is precisely the legal and legal guarantees that Moscow needs, since earlier Western colleagues had not fulfilled their respective oral obligations. As the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov told reporters, assistant to the head of state Yuri Ushakov told the US leader’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan that Moscow was ready to immediately begin negotiations on draft documents on security guarantees. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will represent Russia at the consultations.