The United States and Russia are unlikely to make speedy progress on Moscow-proposed security guarantees during bilateral negotiations slated for early next month, Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th December, 2021) The United States and Russia are unlikely to make speedy progress on Moscow-proposed security guarantees during bilateral negotiations slated for early next month, Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, told Sputnik.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden agreed in June to resume a strategic stability dialogue on future arms control and risk reduction measures. Putin then proposed that the US give Russia firm security guarantees to defuse tensions over Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the talks would begin in Geneva on January 10.
"Given that the US-Russian strategic stability dialogue was originally designed to deal with issues related to nuclear arms control not some of the broader European-Russian security issues raised in the new set of Russian proposals on 'security guarantees,' no, I do not expect rapid progress and any suggestions that rapid progress can be achieved are disingenuous," Kimball said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will seek a package of assurances from his US counterpart, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, that the US and NATO will not expand eastward or place weapons threatening the Russia's security near its borders.
"Any good negotiator understands that negotiations involve give and take and flexibility and a reasonable amount of time, and Mr. Ryabkov and Mr. Putin are smart enough to realize that Washington and its NATO partners have their own grievances with Russia and will put forward their own counterproposals that must be considered. If Russia's leaders have proposed their package of 'security guarantee' proposals as a 'take it or leave it' offer, the initiative is clearly unserious and is designed to give President Putin a cynical excuse to pursue his goals vis-a-vis Ukraine by other, possibly military means," Kimball said.
The US-Russian negotiations will be followed by a Russia-NATO Council meeting on the Russian security proposals on January 12 and a summit of Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on January 13.
