Washington hopes to remove any risk of new Russian invasion of Ukraine without granting concessions on the many requests for Moscow in terms of safety. Moscow forbid any expansion of NATO.
Le Monde with AFP and Reuters
It’s a first round. Washington and Moscow started, from Monday, January 10, to the very uncertain outcome, approaching the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as the European security architecture that Russia wants to redraw by retreating the NATO.
The meeting began a little before 9 hours at the American diplomatic representation of Geneva, Switzerland, in the presence of the deputy ministers of the foreign affairs of the two countries, Wendy Sherman and Sergei Riabkov, while the relations between Washington and Moscow have never been so tense since the Cold War.
Evoking eight hours of “frank and direct” exchanges with his Russian counterpart, Wendy Sherman assured that the American delegation had rejected without the shadow of an ambiguity the Russian proposals aimed at preventing the accession of new countries to NATO.
It has been ready to discuss bilateral issues quickly and in depth, but provided that Moscow enters a logic of de-escalation, proposing to continue these talks soon to enter the detail, particularly on the deployment of missiles . “Russia can provide the evidence by referring his troops to their barracks,” she said during a press conference.
Wendy Sherman also explained to have repeated to his counterpart that any invasion of Ukraine would result in “significant costs”, “enormous”, that Westerners in Russia. She also assured that Washington did not intend to negotiate on the Ukrainian file without associating Kiev, or in detail the security architecture in Europe without the Europeans. But, in the immediate future, Russia has not brought a “response” to the US demand for “de-escalation”, “she deplored.
No intention to” attack Ukraine “
Sergei Riabkov affirmed, for his part, that Russia does “threaten no one”, “no ultimatum”, ensuring that it is in the interest of the Atlantic Alliance to “make a gesture” to answer the concerns of Moscow. “If it does not happen, it would be a mistake on the part of NATO and it would affect its own security,” he warned.
nevertheless “possible” an agreement with the United States, despite positions “to the antipodes on what to do”, he pointed out that it would require compromises and respect by the two countries of their mutual interests .
He greeted the seriousness with whom the American part had taken the requests of Russia for his safety, in the first place, the legal guarantees to never expand NATO, above all to the former pro-Western Soviet countries , Ukraine and Georgia in the lead.
According to him, “the situation is not hopeless” So while, for weeks, Russian-Western tensions have continued to worsen, especially since the deployment of tens of thousands of military Russians at the borders of Ukraine.
But, he tried, “we must not underestimate the risks associated with an aggravation of the evolution of the confrontation”. “It takes a breakthrough, it is necessary that a real gesture towards Russia is done and it must come from NATO,” he hammered, ensuring that, “never to the big never”, Ukraine Must join the Atlantic Alliance. Russia warned that it would not make any “concession” on this subject. For him, the concessions in Russia must be made “quickly”, Mr. Riabkov hammers that the negotiation process should not take “months and years”.
While the diplomats exchanged in Geneva, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed on Monday after skipping on an explosive machine in the east of Ukraine, announced the army. These are the first military killed this year on the front line with the pro-Russian separatists. Ukraine is at war since 2014 against the pro-Russian separatists who control swathes of territory in the East and that Moscow is widely considered the military sponsor despite his denials. Relations between Ukraine and Russia, already deteriorated since 2014, currently experiencing a peak voltages.