This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Talks between delegations from the United States and Russia have started in Geneva, in what is expected to be a week of high-stakes diplomacy prompted by Moscow’s demands for a security deal and its threatening military buildup near Ukraine.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the head of the U.S. delegation, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov started their meeting at the U.S. mission in Geneva on January 10, a State Department spokesperson said.
The talks come amid a standoff over a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s border that the West fears could signal Moscow is preparing an invasion into Ukraine. Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has backed separatists battling government forces in eastern Ukraine.
Before the official start of talks, Sherman and Ryabkov met for a working dinner on January 9 in Geneva.
The two diplomats “discussed the bilateral topics both sides would address” at the main talks on January 10, the State Department said in a statement on January 9.
The bilateral talks in Geneva will be followed by a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels on January 12 and separate multilateral talks under the framework of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on January 13.
The State Department said only certain bilateral issues would be discussed in Geneva but the United States “will not discuss European security without our European Allies and partners,” in a reference to Russia’s demands from the United States and NATO for security guarantees.
“The Deputy Secretary underscored that discussion of certain subjects would be reserved for the NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels on January 12 and the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on January 13,” the State Department said.
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,” the statement said, in a reference to Ukraine and its aspirations of joining NATO.
Sherman “affirmed that the United States would welcome genuine progress through diplomacy,” it added.
Ryabkov told reporters after the dinner that the sides discussed substantive issues and he expected the talks on January 10 were going to be “difficult.”
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held two phone calls in December, accompanied by a flurry of diplomacy involving officials from the United States, its European allies and Ukraine, and Russia that culminates in the three meetings this week.
Putin has issued a series of demands, including guarantees that NATO will not further expand eastward to former Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia. The Kremlin also wants the alliance to rollback troop and weapons deployments in Eastern Europe.
Ahead of the talks in Geneva, Ryabkov laid out Russia’s three demands: no further NATO expansion, no missiles on Russia’s borders, and for NATO no longer to have military exercises, intelligence operations, or infrastructure outside of its 1997 borders.
“The Russian side came here with a clear position that contains a number of elements that, to my mind, are understandable and have been so clearly formulated — including at a high level — that deviating from our approaches simply is not possible,” Ryabkov said.
U.S. officials have said some Russian demands are nonstarters, while others are open to discussion.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that talks with Moscow would not make progress as long as Russia has a “gun to Ukraine’s head.”
“There’s a path of dialogue and diplomacy to try to resolve some of these differences and avoid a confrontation,” Blinken told CNN on January 9.
“The other path is confrontation and massive consequences for Russia if it renews its aggression on Ukraine. We are about to test the proposition about which path President Putin is prepared to take.”
In a separate interview on January 9, Blinken reiterated that Russia would face severe sanctions and other repercussion from the United States and its allies if Moscow were to further invade Ukraine.
“If Russia commits renewed aggression against Ukraine, I think it’s a very fair prospect that NATO will reinforce its positions along its eastern flank, the countries that border Russia,” he told ABC television.
U.S. administration officials have said they might be able to find some common ground with Russia on broader arms control, missile deployments, military exercises, or similar issues.
A senior White House official told reporters in Washington on January 8 that “there will be no firm commitments made in these talks.”
But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the talks could “at least explore the possibility of making progress with the Russians.”
“We won’t know until we get to these conversations…whether Russia is prepared to negotiate seriously and in good faith,” the official said. “We’re going into these meetings with a sense of realism, not a sense of optimism.”
The White House official also said the United States was open to talking about curtailing possible offensive missile deployments in Ukraine and limiting U.S. and NATO military exercises in Eastern Europe. Washington is also ready to discuss the possibility of reciprocal restrictions by both sides on the size and scope of military exercises, including strategic bombers close to each other’s territory and ground-based exercises.
But the official stressed that any agreements would have to be reciprocal and contingent on Russia removing threats to Ukraine.
