GUS State Department: Washington and NATO are ready for a new meeting with Russia on January 10-13, three rounds of negotiations on security guarantees were held. Russia considered them fruitless and does not consider it necessary to hold new consultations in the near future. The United States and NATO have expressed their readiness to continue the dialogue
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (left) and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (right)
The United States and NATO are ready to meet again with the Russian side to continue the dialogue, the State Department said in a statement following telephone conversations between Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Blinken and Stoltenberg discussed “further steps” after the meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, which took place on January 12. The statement of the State Department emphasizes that Washington and its allies in the North Atlantic Alliance are committed to a diplomatic way to resolve the situation. The parties called on Russia to “immediately take measures to de-escalate the ongoing aggression against Ukraine.”
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From January 10 to 13, Russia held three rounds of negotiations with the United States, NATO and the OSCE on Moscow’s proposed security guarantees. The consultations ended without concrete results, and the Russian side assessed them as unsuccessful.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier in an interview with RTVI that he sees no reason to sit down at the negotiating table again in the coming days, pointing to the “impasse or difference in approaches” of the parties.
Last December, the Russian Foreign Ministry sent drafts of strategic security treaties to the United States and NATO. In particular, Moscow proposed to the alliance to abandon the expansion to the east and the inclusion of Ukraine in its composition, as well as the deployment of military bases on the territory of the countries of the former USSR.
On January 10, Russia and the United States held talks in Geneva. They lasted almost eight hours. The day before, Ryabkov and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held preliminary consultations as part of negotiations on the situation in Ukraine and strategic security treaties.
On January 12, a meeting of the Russia — NATO Council was held in Brussels. Ryabkov said that it was not possible to agree on the non-expansion of the alliance to the east at the consultations, and it is this topic that Russia considers key for its national security. Earlier, Stoltenberg said that NATO excludes the possibility of a compromise with Moscow on the issue of Ukraine’s membership.
On January 13, the discussion of security guarantees continued in Vienna at the OSCE site. The representative of Russia to the organization, Alexander Lukashevich, said after the talks that it was not possible to get an adequate response from the partners to Moscow’s proposals.
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