British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to offer Russia additional
assurances that NATO will remain a defensive alliance in an apparent attempt
to calm Moscow's concerns about the bloc's growing military presence near
Russia's borders.
Johnson's spokesman clarified, however, that the prime minister would insist
on maintaining NATO's principle of accepting all countries willing to join.
Russia's Foreign Ministry earlier said it was working to arrange a visit by
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to Moscow.
Britain is trying to defuse tensions around Ukraine. London previously
repeated unfounded accusations by the United States that the Kremlin was
planning an invasion of Ukraine.
"Russia has expressed concern about potential NATO aggression, but we have
been clear that those concerns are fundamentally unfounded because NATO is a
defensive alliance at its core.
It's not about making concessions like the PM and other western leaders who
say all European democracies have the right to join NATO," Johnson's
spokesman said.
The statement followed news that Russia and Britain were working to arrange
a visit by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to Moscow to discuss the
situation around Ukraine and ways to reduce tensions.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the visit was originally planned
for February 10, but is still in progress.
Britain, as well as some of its NATO allies, have alleged for months that
Russia may be planning an invasion of Ukraine, citing internal data on
Russian troop redeployments on the border with the neighboring country.
In the latest escalation of tensions, the US alleges the attacks may begin
within weeks or even days without elaborating on the information that would
lead Washington to believe it. Moscow has repeatedly denied all allegations
of an invasion plot.
Russia also condemned comments about the movement of its troops, which is a
sovereign right of the country, and denounced the continued deployment of
NATO troops, which are getting closer and closer to Russia's borders.
In December 2021, the Kremlin put forward a proposal to reduce tensions in
the region. Russia cites Ukraine's non-inclusion in NATO and the withdrawal
of alliance troops further from Russia's borders as two main prerequisites
for stability.
NATO member states vehemently reject both these proposals, but insist a
diplomatic way out of the situation still exists.
They reportedly proposed opening dialogue on limiting war games near each
other's borders and mutually refraining from deploying weapons which are
essentially prohibited under the now-defunct US-Russian INF Treaty.
The US also provided a written response to the Russian proposal, with Moscow
only revealing that Washington was ignoring two main conditions.
