US-Russian talks record minor progress on arms control but stuck on NATO enlargement

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Senior diplomats from the United States and Russia each said on Monday that the “trade-type” bilateral talks in Geneva offered openings for future engagement on missile systems and military exercises. But the two sides remained deadlocked over the future of NATO membership, which the Russians called “top priority”.

Speaking from Geneva, where the two delegations met to kick off a week of intensive diplomacy, Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said the United States had offered to meet again “soon” to discuss the placement. missiles and a possible relaunch of the Intermediary, which has now disappeared. Treaty on nuclear forces within reach. She also said the United States had signaled its openness to setting “reciprocal limits on the size and scope of military exercises, and improving transparency on such exercises.”

Two officials from the Ministry of Defense, Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia Laura K. Cooper and Lieutenant-General James J. Mingus, accompany Sherman to his meetings. Speaking from the Pentagon on Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Defense Department was aware of and supported discussions of missile capabilities in Europe on the assumption that there would be reciprocity of the Russia in the negotiations on this point. The United States does not have intermediate-range missiles in Europe and has no intention of installing them there, so it would likely require more concessions from Russia on the missiles.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who headed the Russian delegation, told reporters after the nearly eight-hour meeting that the talks were “very professional” and reiterated that Moscow had no intention of attacking Ukraine. “There is no reason to fear some sort of escalation scenario,” he said.

US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, left, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attend security talks at the US Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday January 10, 2022 . Denis Balibouse / AP

But key issues were “still pending,” he said, and said Russia’s demand that Ukraine and Georgia “never, never” join NATO was a “top priority” for Moscow.

“We need foolproof, waterproof, bulletproof and legally binding guarantees. No insurance, no guarantees, but guarantees,” Ryabkov said.

A few weeks ago, Western powers began to publicly reject the request as a non-partisan, which Sherman also reiterated on Monday.

“We will not allow anyone to slam the shutdown of NATO’s ‘open door’ policy, which has always been at the heart of the NATO Alliance,” Sherman said. “We will not give up bilateral cooperation with sovereign states that wish to work with the United States. And we will not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, Europe without Europe or NATO without NATO. ”

And although she admitted that the Russians said they had no intention of invading Ukraine, she said that whether that was true and whether Moscow was ready to defuse the situation remained an open question.

“I would like to note that none of this has been notified to anyone, and it is typical that we inform each other of the exercises to each other when we can,” she said. “And they can prove that in fact they have no intention by defusing and sending the troops back to the barracks.”

Monday’s meeting was the first of several diplomatic engagements with Russia scheduled in three cities this week, but the only time diplomats from the United States and Russia were scheduled to meet face-to-face. The talks took place in a forum called the Strategic Stability Dialogue, which was relaunched after President Biden and Putin met in Geneva in June 2021 and has a particular focus on nuclear weapon risk mitigation and to conflicts.

On Tuesday, Sherman will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, Belgium, ahead of Wednesday’s NATO-Russia Council meeting. On Thursday, a group of 57 countries including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – which includes Russia and Ukraine – will convene a meeting in Vienna, Austria.

“I fully expect that in the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE this week, Russia will hear a cohesive message from the United States and our allies and partners – namely that it is up to Russia to defuse the tensions so that we have a real chance of finding diplomatic solutions, “Sherman said on Monday.

Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.

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