NATO Must Establish Legal Guarantees for 'No Further Expansion and No Deployment of Offensive Weapons'

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[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 10th (local time), Russia repeatedly demanded the establishment of legal guarantees prohibiting NATO's further expansion and the deployment of offensive weapons near Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a "Statement on Dialogue with the United States and Other Western Countries Regarding Security Guarantees" that "based on the principle of equal and indivisible security, we urge the establishment of long-term legal guarantees prohibiting NATO's further eastward expansion and the deployment of threatening weapon systems near Russia's western borders." The principle of indivisible security means that the security of one country cannot be achieved at the expense of another country's security.

It also demanded the official withdrawal of the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit decision that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members for the sake of European security.

Furthermore, it urged the United States and other NATO countries to legally specify an agreement not to deploy offensive weapon systems that could threaten Russia on the territories of NATO member and non-member countries near Russia.

In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested Europe to respond regarding the separation of tactical training areas between Russia and NATO by a certain distance from the contact line on both sides, and the resumption of regular dialogues between Russia and the United States, and Russia and NATO. It also argued that minimum approach distances for ships and military aircraft should be coordinated to prevent dangerous military activities in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded legal guarantees prohibiting NATO's expansion into Ukraine and the deployment of strike offensive weapons during a video conference with U.S. President Joe Biden.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.