Russia wants legally binding security guarantees from NATO: Lavrov

News March 2, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Russia wanted to obtain “legally binding security guarantees” from NATO members and would not allow NATO’s expansion any further, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a video message at the Disarmament Conference.

Lavrov said at the conference, “Western colleagues have not yet shown any willingness to provide Russia with long-term legally binding security guarantees. For us, achieving these objectives is of fundamental importance.”

“Western countries should refrain from establishing military facilities on the territory of former USSR states that are not members of the alliance, including the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity. It is necessary to return NATO’s military capabilities, including strike [capabilities], and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was adopted,” Lavrov stressed.

*^{Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov addresses with a pre-recorded video message the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on March 1, 2022. (Image Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)}*

Initially, the Russian foreign minister had a scheduled visit to Geneva to address the Disarmament Conference and the United Nations Human Rights Council in person, however, he canceled the trip as Kremlin blamed EU nations for imposing anti-Russian sanctions.

While Lavrov was giving the speech, 140 diplomats including Ukraine, the UK, and France staged a walk-out in order to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ambassadors from various countries got up and left the room when Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s pre-recorded video message began to play in the hall.

This morning in the UN Human Rights Council more than 140 diplomats refused to listen to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s futile attempt to justify unacceptable military aggression. Watch them leave the Council Chamber. pic.twitter.com/Syox5sTvaD
— Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger (@tichy_e) March 1, 2022

The diplomats gathered outside in front of a Ukrainian flag and applauded, as Sergey Lavrov continued the speech, with only a few diplomats, from Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, and Venezuela, present in the room.

While speaking at the Disarmament Conference Lavrov said, “It is unacceptable for us that US nuclear weapons still remain in a number of European states in contradiction to the basic points of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The bad practice of joint nuclear missions with the participation of non-nuclear NATO states continues. During such missions, the use of nuclear weapons against Russia is being practiced. US nuclear weapons must have long been returned home, and the corresponding infrastructure in Europe must have long been eliminated.”

“I can assure you, Russia as a responsible member of the international community… is taking all necessary measures to prevent the emergence of nuclear weapons and related technologies in Ukraine,” Lavrov said in a pre-recorded message.

“Ukraine still has Soviet technologies and the means of delivery of such weapons. We cannot fail to respond to this real danger,” Lavrov added.