Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone conversation on Friday to discuss the establishment of long-term and legally binding security guarantees between Russia and the West.
Putin told Macron that Russia will carefully study the written responses from the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Moscow's draft agreements on security guarantees, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by Kremlin.
Putin stressed that the US and NATO responses did not take into account such fundamental concerns of Russia as stopping NATO's expansion and refraining from deploying offensive weapons near Russian borders, among others.
In addition, a key concept was also ignored in the responses, namely the "indivisibility of security" or the principle that no state should strengthen its own security at the expense of the security of others, Putin said.
When discussing the situation in Ukraine, the Russian leader emphasized the importance of Kiev's strict compliance with the 2015 Minsk Agreements and other deals.
As France presides over the Council of the European Union in the first half of this year, Macron and Putin agreed to continue the French-Russian dialogue on the entire range of European security issues.
--IANS
int/shs
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU