WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2018) The Geneva meeting between Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Adviser John Bolton was a positive development that can defuse tensions between the two nuclear superpowers, former EU consultant Paolo von Schirach told Sputnik.
Earlier in the day, Patrushev and Bolton met in Geneva where they agreed to continue security cooperation and resume suspended US-Russian bilateral contacts across several ministries and departments.
"The meeting represents a positive development in the context of rather toxic US-Russia relations," Schirach said on Thursday. "The meeting was mostly about reopening channels of communications between senior national security officials of the two major nuclear powers."
Schirach suggested that no dramatic advances had been made in the talks but the two officials still appeared to have achieved their basic purpose.
"It would appear that both sides believe that, lacking reliable channels of communications, misunderstandings due to the incorrect reading of the other sides intentions, may lead to unnecessary heightened tensions, and possibly even catastrophic consequences, such as an armed conflict," Schirach said.
The meeting, he added, is also about a future timetable for open ended negotiations.
"But at least it shows that both sides do not want to let the current nuclear arms control treaty expire without renewing it," Schirach said.
Following the meeting, Russia's Security Council said that Patrushev and Bolton had discussed North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, and the Iran nuclear deal. They, however, failed to adopt a joint statement because the United States wanted it to contain a remark on the Russian alleged interference in the US election, which Moscow has repeatedly categorically denied.
Schirach is also President of the Global Policy Institute and Professor of International Affairs at BAU International University.
