After almost 8 hours of talks in Geneva on security in Europe, the US and Russian delegations made no progress, but no one expected anything more than to present their positions and clarify what could be negotiated. However, Russia immediately went on to insist that it quickly agree to the security guarantees it demanded.
The heads of the two delegations first said in separate meetings with reporters that the meeting was useful and very professional. “We had a very useful discussion and exchange of views today, which will help us figure out how to move forward,” said Wendy Sherman, the second person in the State Department after Anthony Blinken.
“The conversation was difficult, long, very professional, thorough, concrete and without attempts to embellish things and smooth out the sharp edges. We were left with the impression that the American side took Russia’s proposals very seriously and studied them thoroughly,” said Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The talks focused on European security in general, the possible reduction in the scale of military exercises, more transparency and negotiations on missiles located on the continent, as well as the situation around Ukraine, in particular, and the resumption of discussions was postponed to the NATO summit. Russia in Brussels on Wednesday with the participation of all countries of the alliance.
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According to initial estimates, the two countries today have remained almost at their starting points and quite far from finding a compromise.