United States and Russia opened this Monday () a series of conversations about the crisis of the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, with representatives of the governments of both countries praising the dialogues, but admitting that there has not been much progress in resolving the matter.
10175812American and Russian diplomats met in Geneva, Switzerland. Two other meetings will be held this week: on Wednesday (12), there will be a debate within the framework of the Russia-NATO (Western military alliance) council in Brussels, and on Thursday (13), a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, the only one of the three meetings in which Ukraine will be directly represented.
10175812This Monday, Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state and leader of the American delegation in Geneva, said after the meeting that “Useful discussions and exchanges”. “We have been steadfast in rejecting security proposals that are simply not considered by the United States,” Sherman said, according to information from The Guardian.
“We will not allow anyone to close NATO’s open-door policy,” he added, referring to Russia’s demand that Ukraine’s eventual entry into the military alliance be vetoed. .
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Riabkov, declared after the meeting that the conversations were “difficult, long, very professional, deep, concrete”. “We got the impression that the American side approached the Russian proposals very seriously, studied them in depth”, analyzed Riabkov.
“Sadly, there are aspects in which we disagree: something that is absolutely necessary for us is categorically unacceptable for Americans”, pointed out the deputy minister, emphasizing the Russian demand that no NATO military activities are carried out in countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
10175812 Moscow claims that it is aimed only at self-defense. Ukraine estimates that around 12 a thousand Russian troops are already concentrated on the border and fears a invasion along the lines of the annexation of Crimea and the separatist movements in the Donbass region, both in 2014.
Neither side preferred to advance measures before the other meetings of the week are held. “We will have discussions with our allies and partners in the coming days, and later this week, based on these discussions, the US and Russian governments will discuss the way forward,” said Sherman.
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