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During today’s talks between the United States and Russia, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman called the conversation with the representative of the Russian delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, “sincere and direct.”
The negotiations in Geneva took place at the initiative of the Russian side. On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a draft agreement with NATO and the United States on security guarantees. Under Russian terms, the United States should not establish military bases on the territory of non-NATO countries of the former Soviet Union, and the alliance should stop eastward expansion.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the negotiations “difficult.” He said Moscow needed guarantees, not promises. According to him, the non-membership of Ukraine and Georgia in NATO is a matter of national security of Russia. “It is absolutely necessary for us to ensure that Ukraine never becomes a member of NATO. “We want the formula adopted at the Bucharest summit in 2008 to be withdrawn and replaced by the following: ‘Ukraine and Georgia will never become members of NATO,'” Ryabkov said.
He stressed that Moscow had explained in detail to Washington the logic of its proposals and explained why obtaining legal guarantees for the non-proliferation of NATO was an absolute imperative. Sherman said that the United States had made it clear in the talks on security guarantees that they were ready to discuss the installation of missiles in Europe, but that they did not agree with the restrictions on the admission of new countries to NATO. She stressed that negotiations on security issues could not be completed in a short period of time – in days or weeks.
“There was a discussion today to better understand each other, as well as each other’s priorities and concerns. “That was not the name of the negotiations,” she said. According to her, the United States offered Russia to meet to discuss the issue again soon
Sherman said that during the talks, the US side hinted to Russia that the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine would be much more severe than in 2014. She added that the United States defines de-escalation as the return of Russian soldiers to the barracks of or informing the United States of what exercises are being conducted in Russia and what their purpose is.
“They can prove that they do not intend to invade by turning the troops into barracks or by telling us what exercises are being carried out and what their purpose is,” she said, adding that the US still did not know if Russia was ready for that. de-escalation. The meeting between the Russian and American delegations lasted about 7.5 hours and was held behind closed doors.
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