Negotiations between Russia and US underway in Geneva
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
As part of a bilateral Strategic Stability Forum, the US and Russian delegations are in Geneva for talks, one of the main topics of which is to discuss Russia's demands for security guarantees in December.
Earlier, the heads of the US and Russian delegations, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov held a preliminary meeting in Geneva on January 10 in the format of a business dinner.
After 7 hours of talks with her Russian counterpart, Sherman told the media “We will not allow anyone to close NATO's open-door policy.”
According to the US Deputy Secretary of State, during the talks in Geneva, she discussed with the Russian representative the bilateral steps towards de-escalation concerning missile systems and military exercises. At the same time, she once again warned Russia that invading Ukraine would cost him dearly and once again called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian border.
“We have presented a series of ideas where our two countries can engage in interactions that will be in our security interests and improve strategic stability.”
The Deputy Secretary said she offered the Russian side to continue talks on the deployment of missile systems. At the same time, she ruled out giving Russia any guarantees on Ukraine's non-membership in NATO.
On the other hand, Ryabov announced: “We want to know at the Madrid Summit that Georgia and Ukraine will never become members of NATO. We emphasize the need for Russia to ensure that Ukraine never becomes a member of NATO,” he said, adding that the Declaration of Bucharest Summit 2008, where it says that Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members should be changed and say that it will never happen. The Deputy Minister said that Russia needs firm and legal guarantees, not promises.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday that he did not expect any breakthroughs from the Geneva talks or during the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels. In an interview with ABC on January 9, Blinken said he had no particular hope of achieving the US-Russian delegation meeting at the OSCE this weekend. “Today the issue is this: will President Putin choose the path of diplomacy and dialogue if he takes the path of confrontation,” said Blinken.
He said that Russia has committed repeated acts of aggression against its neighbors going back more than a decade – Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine in 2014, and now the prospect of doing that again.
“And at the same time, this is even bigger than Ukraine. This goes to some basic principles of international relations that are what guarantee peace and security: the principle that one nation can’t simply change the borders of another by force; the principle that one nation can’t dictate to another its choices and with whom it will associate; the principle that we can’t have countries exerting spheres of influence to subjugate their neighbors. That should be a relic of the past. All of that is what is in play here. That’s why it’s so important that we stand not only for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, its sovereignty, and its independence but for these basic principles.”
The background to the US-Russia talks on strategic stability is the mobilization of Russian troops along Ukraine's borders and Moscow's demands to the US and NATO.
On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the draft agreements on security guarantees with the United States and NATO. One of Russia's demands is that the US and NATO not allow further strengthening of NATO in the East and the admission of the former Soviet republics into the alliance. Also, refrain from any military activity in Ukraine, other Eastern European countries, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
It’s important that earlier this week, the US Secretary of State was asked about Russia’s recently increased demands of guarantees on NATO’s eastward non-expansion and his expectations from the upcoming US-Russia security talks scheduled for January 10.
According to Blinken, the source of instability in the region is Russia, not NATO: invading neighboring countries, interfering in other countries' elections, violating international arms control agreements, pulling back from long agreed confidence-building and transparency measures.
“Yes, Russia has raised issues of European security in its public statements and the documents that it put forward. But let’s be very, very clear about this: NATO did not invade Ukraine; NATO did not invade Georgia; NATO did not position forces in Moldova against the will of its people. Those are all things, among many others, that Russia has done in recent years,” Secretary said.
According to him over the past two decades, it is Russia that has invaded neighboring countries; interfered in other countries’ elections; used chemical weapons to attempt to assassinate opponents of the government, and done so on foreign soil; violated international arms control agreements; pulled back from confidence-building and transparency measures long agreed.
“And so we and our allies will be raising these and other issues with Russia in the days and weeks ahead,” U.S. Secretary of State announced a few days before Geneva talks.
