Moscow - NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu is surprised over remarks of Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov that Russia needs guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO.
“Such a statement from a Russian official is surprising, out of touch with reality, and in breach of the international agreements that Russia itself has signed,” Lungescu told Interfax on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
“Ukraine decided to pursue a ‘non-bloc’ policy in 2010 and has not changed that policy since. NATO respects Ukraine’s sovereign decisions and so should Russia,” she said.
“As regards accession to NATO, alliance leaders made clear at the Wales Summit that NATO’s Open Door policy is one of the alliance’s great successes and that decisions on enlargement are for NATO itself,” Lungescu said.
She pointed out that Russia itself “subscribed to the fundamental principles of the inherent right of each state to choose its own security arrangements in a range of international agreements.”
Peskov had said in an interview with BBC on Wednesday, Nov. 19 that Russia wanted guarantees that nobody would think about Ukraine’s accession to NATO.
“We would like to hear a 100 percent guarantee that no one would think about Ukraine’s joining NATO. We would like hear that NATO will discontinue to approach the Russian border, that NATO will discontinue attempts to break the balance of powers, but unfortunately we fail to hear it. And it makes us nervous,” Peskov said.
“The longer our national interests will be endangered, the longer we will continue to reply,” he said.
Robert Pszczel, the head of the NATO Information Office in Moscow, told Interfax that the alliance was surprised to hear Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov’s statement to the effect that Russia needs guarantees of Ukraine’s non-accession to NATO.
“This statement is surprising,” Pszczel said.
He explained this reaction to Peskov’s remark by two reasons. “The first reason, I think, is that everyone knows that Ukraine is not a candidate for NATO membership today – such is its position,” he said.
“The second reason for the surprise is that all issues concerning this country’s admission to NATO can be discussed only by alliance members. Russia is not known as a NATO member, and so this statement by a Russian official is surprising,” Pszczel said.
