Russia Releases Draft Security Treaties with U.S. and with NATO

Dec. 17, 2021 (EIRNS)—The Russian Foreign Ministry today released two draft documents, one in the form of a treaty between the United States and Russia, the other as a treaty between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia.

They are not debating points or suggestions; they are fully drafted as ready-to-sign documents.

Sane heads will see in these two draft documents the starting point for a serious discussion on the kinds of security structures that will provide for the legitimate security concerns for all of the nations concerned. The trans-Atlantic war party, on the other hand, will reject the drafts as contradicting the ideology of their unipolar world outlet.

Both documents draw from the principles found in earlier international treaties, including the UN Charter, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, among others. The principles cited include recognizing the authority of the UN Security Council as having primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security and the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of any state. It also reaffirms “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” and recognizes “the need to make every effort to prevent the risk of outbreak of such war among States that possess nuclear weapons.”

Among other things, the U.S.-Russia draft treaty prohibits military activities of any kind “where such deployment could be perceived by the other Party as a threat to its national security, with the exception of such deployment within the national territories of the Parties.” This includes the flying of non-nuclear and nuclear-capable heavy bombers as well as surface warships where they can attack targets on the territory of the other party.

The agreements call for NATO to refrain from expansion, explicitly mentioning Ukraine. They also call for an acknowledgement that Russia and NATO “reaffirm that they do not consider each other as adversaries.”

The Russia-NATO draft treaty includes a significant roll-back of NATO expansion as it has occurred since 1997 to include the future membership of Ukraine and Georgia in the alliance, as well as the prohibition of alliance military activities above brigade level in a zone to be agreed on either side of the border between Russia and NATO.

“The Parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shall not conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine as well as other States in the Eastern Europe, in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia,” says the NATO agreement.