“Negotiations ended about ten minutes ago”, & nbsp; & mdash; said the press secretary of the mission, Joseph Kruzich.
The meeting of the parties took place behind closed doors and lasted about 7.5 hours. After negotiations in & nbsp; Geneva, contacts will continue at & nbsp; meeting of the Council of Russia & nbsp; & mdash; NATO on January 12 & nbsp; in & nbsp; Brussels and & nbsp; January 13 & nbsp; in & nbsp; Vienna at & nbsp; meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stated that & nbsp; in & nbsp; during the negotiations, the Russian side will seek from & nbsp; American colleagues & laquo; providing solid legal guarantees of the security of the Russian Federation, and & nbsp; namely & nbsp; & mdash; non-advancement of NATO to the & nbsp; east and & nbsp; non-deployment of weapons threatening Russia at & nbsp; the country's borders.
The Russian delegation to the & nbsp; talks was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the American & nbsp; & mdash; First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. The day before, the parties held preliminary negotiations for a & nbsp; working dinner. Ryabkov said that & nbsp; the conversation was difficult, but & nbsp; business.
On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements with the & nbsp; US and & nbsp; agreements with & nbsp; NATO military alliance on & nbsp; guarantees and & nbsp; security. In & nbsp; in particular, the documents imply a refusal to & nbsp; deployment of medium and & nbsp; short-range ground-based missiles outside the alliance's territory and & nbsp; refusal to & nbsp; expand the military bloc to & nbsp; east, closer to & nbsp; Russian borders.