U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone today, but the readouts were not in agreement. According to the State Department readout, Blinken “emphasized the U.S. willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns, which we intend to do in full coordination with our partners and Allies.”
Lavrov, however, said afterwards that Blinken reacted negatively to Moscow’s insistence that OSCE documents stressing the indivisibility of security interests must be abided by. “I mean our demands that all must responsibly implement the agreements on indivisible security reached within the OSCE framework in Istanbul in 1999 and in Astana in 2010,” he said, reported TASS. The U.S. reply to Russia’s proposals on security guarantees that was received last week showed that “the Americans prefer to focus on discussing still important, but secondary issues,” Lavrov insisted.
