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Russia has warned the US and Nato to make concessions or face a worsening safety scenario in Europe, because it downplayed the potential for progress in talks between Moscow and Washington geared toward averting an invasion of Ukraine.
Russian and US officers are assembly on Monday in Geneva for high-stakes negotiations on Ukraine and wider European defence. The talks had been prompted by Russia’s deployment of about 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and its warnings of army motion if the west ignores calls for for brand new ensures that might reshape Europe’s safety structure.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy overseas minister and lead negotiator in Geneva, mentioned Russia wouldn’t yield on its demand for Nato to by no means make Ukraine a member, a pledge the US and the army alliance has already dominated out.
“Now the opposite aspect should present flexibility. If they’re unable to do that, then they are going to face a worsening scenario in their very own safety,” he advised Russian state information company Ria. “I’ve reasonably pessimistic forecasts on this regard, however we’ll persistently clarify that with out fixing this key activity, a productive dialogue is not going to work.”
The talks are the primary in a sequence of diplomatic conferences this week geared toward de-escalating the scenario in Ukraine. Nato’s secretary-general has advised the Monetary Instances that the alliance hopes for “co-operation” from Moscow however is ready for attainable battle.
Ryabkov leads a delegation that may spend Monday locked in talks with a US delegation led by Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state.
After a dinner between the 2 negotiators on Sunday night, US state division spokesman Ned Worth mentioned Washington “would welcome real progress via diplomacy”.
“[Sherman} stressed the United States’ commitment to the international principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the freedom of sovereign nations to choose their own alliances,” Price said.
US officials, while ruling out any agreements that would end Nato’s “open door” membership policy or reduce the alliance’s ability to defend its members, have said it could be instead open to possible talks on not deploying missile systems in Ukraine.
But Ryabkov said Moscow would not settle for this as an alternative.
“I’ll tell you this, in response they will hear: ‘We are ready to discuss only the non-expansion of Nato, the non-accession of Ukraine, Georgia and other countries to the alliance’,” he said. “We will not make any concessions. This is completely ruled out.”
Bilateral talks in Geneva will be followed by talks in Brussels on Wednesday between Russia and the 30 members of Nato.
Ryabkov said those talks also did not look promising for potential progress.
“They want to . . . [discuss] on their very own phrases, with an agenda that fits them, with an emphasis on the so-called de-escalation, the so-called ‘Russian aggression’ in Ukraine,” Ryabkov added. “That is unacceptable to us.”
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