LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to offer Russia reassurance about NATO’s role because it is a defensive alliance and any European democracies should be able to join, his spokesman said on Monday.
Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, is demanding security guarantees including a promise NATO will never admit Ukraine.
“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,” Johnson’s spokesman said.
“But we do want to work with Russia to provide diplomatic reassurance on that front. It is not about making concessions as the PM and other western leaders have said all European democracies have a right to join NATO.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper. Writing by Andrew MacAskill)
