There was nothing in the talks between Wendy Sherman and Sergey Ryabkov in Geneva that could be considered a success or a rapprochement between the parties.
Photo: Denis Balibouse / EPA / SCANPIX
19:00, January 12, 2022
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Viesturs Sprūde, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
The seven-and-a-half-hour Monday talks in Geneva between US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Secretary of State Sergei Ryabkov to ease tensions at Ukraine’s border and in West-Russia relations have, as previously predicted, essentially ended. The NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels and the discussions within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna tomorrow are unlikely to change.
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Russia is known to have demanded the ultimate demand for legally secured guarantees that NATO will never include Ukraine and Georgia in its ranks and that it will abandon military action in countries that have joined the Alliance since 1997. As Ryabkov said after Monday’s talks in Geneva, the guarantees must be ‘reinforced concrete’. The United States and its NATO allies reject as unacceptable any attempt to restrict NATO’s discretion in this way.
“We will stand firm and reject security settlement offers in the United States that are simply non-negotiable. We will not allow anyone to undermine NATO’s open door policy, which has always been central to NATO’s alliance-building. We will not abandon bilateral cooperation with sovereign countries that want to work with the United States. And we will not decide on Ukraine without Ukraine, on Europe without Europe or on NATO without NATO. As we have already told our allies and partners, “nothing about you, without you,” Sherman said at a press briefing after the Geneva talks.
Ryabkov also told reporters that Russia had not made concessions on NATO enlargement. He insisted that Russia did not threaten anyone, including Ukraine. There is no reason to fear the “escalation scenario”. However, this contradicts the reality that in recent months there has been a concentration of 122,000 Russian troops and equipment 200 km from Ukraine’s borders. ” they are just maneuvers and training. But I would point out that no one has been informed about it, although it is common to inform each other about training. Russia can prove that it really does not [iebrukuma nolūka]”By desaling the situation and returning troops to the barracks,” Sherman said in response to a reporter’s question.
Russia has not expressed any readiness to withdraw from Ukraine in the talks. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Pentagon, also told the media that there were no signs of Russia’s preparations to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border.
Expected information
It is clear from diplomats that Geneva has at least agreed that a hypothetical nuclear war cannot be won, so it should never be started. The United States is also ready to discuss a return to the Medium- and Near-Range Non-Proliferation Treaty, which affects Europe and has been withdrawn by former US President Donald Trump, believing that Russia has already begun to violate it in the Kaliningrad region. Negotiations could also affect the limitation of military maneuvers.
However, it was not clear from Ryabkov whether Moscow was prepared to talk about anything other than the weakening of NATO. Indirectly, the level of trust in the relationship is evidenced by Russia’s Foreign Ministry outrage at White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s reminder to journalists that there should be readiness for the Geneva talks: “We are preparing for a possibility an agreement that did not exist at all, or will go further and use something as a pretext for further destabilizing activities. We would therefore urge you not to fall into any attempt to spread misinformation here. “
It is unclear whether further security talks between the United States and Russia will follow in the foreseeable future. Washington allows them, but Moscow is evasive, constantly bringing ultimate demands on NATO to the fore. No radical turn is expected from the NATO-Russia Council today. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Grushko said yesterday that talks in Brussels would be informal.
“We are going there with absolutely realistic expectations and hopes that this will be a serious, deep conversation about the main, fundamental problems of European security. (..) Everything has its time, and without exaggeration it can be said that ours [Krievijas] a moment of truth has come in relations with the alliance, ”Gruško quoted the Russian agency RIA Novosti as saying. Several international observers in the West believe that the introduction of Russian-led “peacekeeping forces” into unrest in Kazakhstan should be seen as a warning to the West of Russia’s ability to act quickly.
At the same time, information about the 200 million military aid package appeared in the American media, which the United States approved for Ukraine in the last days of last year before the Geneva dialogue without unnecessary advertising. The cargo includes small arms and ammunition, communications equipment and medical equipment. Military supplies are expected to increase further in the coming weeks.
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