The US Government indicated this Saturday that the deployment of missiles in Europe and military maneuvers are two areas in which they foresee that “understandings” with Russia could take place in the meetings next week in which the situation will be discussed in Ukraine.
“We are open to talking about it because we believe that progress can be made, although yes: always in consultation with our allies and always reciprocally,” said in a phone call with journalists, a senior official in the US Administration.
For its part, the Kremlin has already announced that it wants to agree with Washington and NATO a new framework for security in Europe, in such a way that the United States joins its unilateral moratorium on the placement of short and medium-range missiles. on the continent and the Atlantic Alliance moves your military maneuvers away from the Russian borders.
The senior US government official, however, pointed out that one area in which they are not willing to compromise is a possible Ukraine rapprochement with NATO, since “Russia cannot decide whose they are or who they leave behind. to be allies of other countries “.
In their conversation last week, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized that “there are areas where significant progress can be made” and that there are also other areas where agreements “may be impossible,” according to the version that the White House gave.
The US leader also warned his Russian counterpart of a “decisive” response in the event that Moscow attacks Ukraine, to which Putin threatened a “total” rupture of relations if that happened, according to the Kremlin’s version.
High-level delegations from the United States and Russia will hold strategic dialogue in Geneva (Switzerland) on Monday in which they will try to reduce the current tensions on the Ukrainian question, although this effort will continue multilaterally throughout the next week in Brussels and Vienna.
The US Undersecretary of State, Wendy Sherman, and the Russian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Riabkov, will lead the delegations that will meet in Geneva, and that will seek to continue the rapprochement begun with the summit between the presidents of both countries in June 2021 in the Swiss city.
Although Russia prioritizes dialogue with the United States, it has also agreed to meet with the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels next Wednesday, within the framework of the NATO-Russia Council, after many offers from the organization’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, in recent years.