{"id":54505,"date":"2022-01-10T11:13:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T11:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/01\/10\/us-russia-meet-for-talks-amid-tensions-over-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:25:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:25:04","slug":"us-russia-meet-for-talks-amid-tensions-over-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/01\/10\/us-russia-meet-for-talks-amid-tensions-over-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"US, Russia meet for talks amid tensions over Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GENEVA (AP) \u2014 Senior U.S. and Russian officials launched special talks on strategic stability<\/a> on Monday as part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Europe this week aimed at defusing tensions over a Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine,<\/a> though no major breakthrough was immediately in sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and his delegation arrived under Swiss police escort at the U.S. diplomatic mission for face-to-face talks with Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, and her team. The meeting is part of \u201cStrategic Security Dialogue\u201d talks on arms control and other broad issues launched by Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin<\/a> during a June summit in the Swiss city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an informal working dinner on Sunday, Ryabkov predicted \u201cdifficult\u201d talks in Geneva that are to be followed by a NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and a meeting of the multilateral Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moscow has sought to wrest a string of concessions from the U.S. and its Western allies, including guarantees that NATO will no longer expand eastward into former Soviet states like Ukraine, along whose border Russia has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops in steps that have raised concerns about a possible deeper military intervention there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Department spokesman Ned Price said that during Sunday\u2019s dinner Sherman \u201cstressed the United States\u2019 commitment to the international principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the freedom of sovereign nations to choose their own alliances,\u201d a reference to Ukraine and its aspirations of joining NATO. Many analysts say any such accession would be years away at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherman \u201caffirmed that the United States would welcome genuine progress through diplomacy,\u201d Price said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has played down hopes of significant progress this week and said some demands \u2014 like a possible halt to NATO expansion \u2014 go against countries\u2019 sovereign rights to set up their own security arrangements, and are thus non-negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But U.S. officials have expressed openness to other ideas, like curtailing possible future deployments of offensive missiles in Ukraine and putting limits on American and NATO military exercises in Eastern Europe \u2014 if Russia is willing to back off on Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said bluntly Sunday that he doesn\u2019t expect any breakthroughs in the coming week. Instead, he said a more likely positive outcome would be an agreement to de-escalate tensions in the short term and return to talks at an appropriate time in the future. But the U.S. will have to see a de-escalation for there to be actual progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to see that happening when there\u2019s an ongoing escalation, when Russia has a gun to the head of Ukraine with 100,000 troops near its borders, the possibility of doubling that on very short order,\u201d Blinken said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also sought to play down expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that we can expect that these meetings will solve all the issues,\u201d he told reporters in Brussels on Monday after talks with Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine\u2019s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. \u201cWhat we are hoping for is that we can agree on a way forward, that we can agree on a series of meetings, that we can agree on a process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia has said that it wants the issue resolved this month, but NATO is wary that Putin might be looking for a pretext, such as a negotiating failure, to launch an invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States, which has emphasized that Ukraine\u2019s government and those of other European countries need to be included in the discussions, plans to discuss some bilateral issues in Geneva \u201cbut will not discuss European security without our European allies and partners,\u201d Price said Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\t