The demand put forward by russian president vladimir putin for documentary guarantees of NATO's refusal to expand to the east is not being discussed by the alliance.
Several knowledgeable NATO employees and diplomats who wished to speak anonymously told Radio Liberty about this.
According to the interlocutors, this issue was not on the agenda of any of the recent, as well as previous, official meetings of the bloc's representatives.
"Perhaps this is just an academic discussion," one of the interlocutors told reporters, adding that any decision by NATO should be made on the basis of consensus.
A written guarantee of non-expansion to the east is not something that moscow "can get so easily," since the decision to join an alliance is a sovereign right of states, enshrined in international treaties, another interlocutor emphasized.
Last Wednesday, Reuters, citing russian sources familiar with the negotiations on Ukraine, reported that putin is demanding that Western countries provide a "written" commitment not to expand NATO eastward, thus excluding Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova from the alliance.
Later, US President's special envoy Keith Kellogg said that Washington recognizes russia's concerns about the potential inclusion of new states in NATO as "reasonable". He noted that the US government is ready to discuss this issue with moscow.
Ukraine set a course for full membership of the country in the EU and NATO back in 2019, making appropriate amendments to the Constitution.
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