Security guarantees remain key issue for Russia for indefinite term - Deputy FM Grushko

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Security guarantees will remain a key issue for Russia for an indefinite period of time, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

"If we talk about Russia's lasting security interests, certainly, guarantees will remain a key issue for the foreseeable future and beyond," Grushko said on the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel.

"And if this issue of guarantees is settled, then we could think about some new architecture of relations with both the alliance [NATO] and other organizations that currently exist in this region," he said.

Russia will continue to insist on legal guarantees of NATO's non-enlargement east, he said.

Asked what methods Russia intends to use to have the NATO forces return to the 1997 borders, Grushko replied, "We always favor political-diplomatic relations, not military, not military-technical ones."

"By the way, we've always warned that, if we don't manage to solve this politically, based on a consensus and a balance of interests, we would have to take measures that we would see fit, but then it would be too late to ask why we did that," he said.