UK Wants to Give Russia Assurances NATO is Defensive Alliance, Insist on Countries' Right to Join

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier stated that it was working with its British counterparts to organise a visit by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to Russia in order to try and ease the tensions around Ukraine. London previously repeated unfounded allegations by the US that the Kremlin is planning an invasion of Ukraine.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to offer Russia additional assurances that NATO will remain a defensive alliance in an apparent attempt to soothe Moscow's concerns about the bloc's ever-growing military presence in close proximity to the nation's borders. Johnson's spokesman clarified, however, that the prime minister will insist on maintaining NATO's principle of accepting all willing countries.

"Russia has expressed concerns about potential NATO aggression, but we have been clear that those concerns are fundamentally unfounded as NATO is a defensive alliance at its heart. [...] It is not about making concessions as the PM and other western leaders have said all European democracies have a right to join NATO", Johnson's spokesman said.

The statement follows the news that Russia and the UK are working to organise a visit by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to Moscow in order to discuss the situation around Ukraine and ways of reducing related tensions. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the visit is preliminarily planned for 10 February, but is still being worked on.

West's Unfounded Claims About Possible Russian 'Invasion' of Ukraine

The UK, as well as several of its NATO allies, have been alleging for months that Russia might be planning an invasion of Ukraine citing internal data on Russian troop redeployments at the border with the nation's neighbour. In the latest escalation of tensions, the US alleged that the offensive might start within weeks or even days without elaborating on the information that led Washington to believe that.

Moscow has repeatedly denied all of the allegations about it supposedly planning an invasion. It also condemned the comments about its troop movements, which is the country's sovereign right, and lashed out at the continuing deployment of NATO forces, which continue to come increasingly close to Russia's borders. In December 2021, the Kremlin forwarded proposals on reducing tensions in the region. Russia named Ukraine's non-inclusion in NATO and withdrawal of the alliance's forces further from the Russian border as the two key prerequisites for stability.

NATO member nations strongly rejected both of these proposals, but insisted that a diplomatic exit from the situation still exists. They reportedly proposed opening a dialogue on limiting war games near each others' borders and mutual non-deployment of armaments that were essentially banned under the now-defunct US-Russian INF Treaty. The US also provided a written response to Russia's proposals, with Moscow only revealing that Washington ignored two key provisions.