NATO will not let Moscow dictate the alliance's military posture, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on a visit to German troops based in Lithuania.
"We need to solve the current tensions on the diplomatic level but just as well by putting up a credible deterrence," Lambrecht told reporters in Rukla on her first visit to German troops abroad.
"We will discuss Russia's proposals...But it cannot be that Russia dictates to NATO partners their posture, and that is something that we will make very clear in the talks (next week at the NATO council)," Reuters cited her as saying.
On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry released two drafts of documents concerning legal guarantees of security Russia would like the United States and NATO to provide. Russia said it wanted NATO to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow is extremely disappointed by the signals coming from Washington and NATO regarding the Russian proposals on guarantees of security.
"The signals from Washington and Brussels disappoint us extremely," the diplomat said, commenting on White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s remarks regarding the potential talks on guarantees of security with Russia.
The Deputy Minister noted that Russia is receiving only public statements about its proposals from the U.S. and NATO.
