Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to force a reduction of NATO ’s operations in Europe as a condition of future negotiations to end the war in Ukraine , according to Russia ’s top diplomat.
“A political and diplomatic settlement should be accompanied by specific steps for removing the threats to the Russian Federation emanating from the Western, Euroatlantic direction,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the United Nations Security Council. “In the process of agreeing upon mutual guarantees and accords, it will also be necessary to take into account new geostrategic realities on the Eurasian continent where a common continental architecture of truly equal and indivisible security is being formed.”
That was an apparent reference to a pair of initiatives that the Kremlin has proffered as mainstays of Putin’s long-term strategy. Moscow proposed integrating its various strategic initiatives into a “Greater Eurasian Partnership” with China while also demanding that the United States and Western European allies curtail their military ties with the central and Eastern European countries that have joined NATO in recent years.
“We are ready for looking for a balance of interests,” Lavrov claimed.
Lavrov’s visit to New York was greeted with scorn from Ukrainian and Western officials, who dismissed his claim to stand for “multilateral cooperation” as an elaborate display of hypocrisy.
“While you tell us how you believe the world order can become more just, democratic, and sustainable, your military is systematically bombing civilians in Ukraine in an unprovoked war of aggression and in flagrant violation of the U.N. Charter,” British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward said in response. “The war in Ukraine is a stark reminder of what kind of world order Russia really wants: a world where might is right, and powerful countries can bully and invade other countries with impunity.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team rebuffed Lavrov’s renewal of the demands. “The problem with the formulation from the foreign minister is there’s no one in Europe that is threatening Russia,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday. “What Russia seems to see as a threat is a democracy functioning on its borders. And that’s just not a legitimate view. There’s not been a military threat. No one has threatened to take Russian territory, to take Russian land.”
Still, China’s envoy at the council joined Lavrov in denouncing NATO. “History has amply proved that wherever NATO’s hand extends, turmoil and chaos will ensue,” Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong said Tuesday during the council meeting. “China hereby advises NATO and certain countries to conduct some soul-searching and stop being the troublemakers who jeopardize common security at the expense of others.”
The Chinese envoy fumed over the idea of NATO “shifting the blame to countries outside the region to frame them on the issue of Ukraine,” a reference to the trans-Atlantic consensus that China stands as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine through its support of Russia’s defense industry. And yet, the allies “have not decided” how to confront China over this policy, according to Lithuania’s top diplomat, because of the web of economic ties to the communist power.
"We are entangled in a very similar relationship [as the one that] we had with Russia,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said last week at the Hudson Institute. “It doesn’t allow us to take a very clear position. … It assists Russia, obviously, in its war, but also it assists China, for them to grow their strength in military, to find a way how to avoid sanctions, to find a way how to avoid this European or Western annoyance, let’s say, about them and still be a real kingmaker in this conflict and also possibly in any other that they would entertain being part of.”
Lavrov’s remarks renewed a demand that Russia previously made two months prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"When we say that NATO facilities and all kinds of activities that are provocative for Russia need to be rolled back to the positions that existed in 1997 when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed, we are not bluffing," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in December 2021.
That month, Russian officials released a so-called draft treaty demanding that NATO allies “shall not conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine as well as other States in Eastern Europe, in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia.” That proviso would deliver a blow to the allies who joined NATO after the Cold War — a group of 14 countries at the time of the draft treaty’s publication that has since expanded to include Sweden and Finland.
“You visited Vilnius — it’s a lovely city, it’s a lovely country,” Landsbergis said during the Hudson event, referring to his nation’s capital. “And it’s lovely today because it has NATO. We have [the] EU. We’re part of it. We’re safe, we’re secure, and we’re prosperous because of this umbrella.”
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Miller, the State Department spokesman, said it’s not clear whether China would back Russia’s initiative to negotiate over the presence of that umbrella.
"With respect to China, so look, we have seen, as you said, further relationship between China and Russia, and it’s not just with respect to revitalizing the defense industrial base. It is also with respect to being a major strategic partner of Russia,” Miller said. “You’ve seen close ties between President Putin and President Xi, with visits between the two. And so I don’t — I can’t ultimately predict where it will go."
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