Russia began to lay out its demands for security guarantees in Europe to NATO’s 30 allies on Wednesday, following intense talks with the United States in Geneva that showed the two sides have major differences to bridge.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg received Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko at allied headquarters to try to defuse the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War, triggered primarily by a confrontation over Ukraine, which the United States says Russia is planning to invade. Moscow dismisses such claims, though it is massing troops near the Ukrainian border.
The talks in the NATO-Russian Council include NATO envoys, ministers and a Russian delegation led by Grushko.
They are the highest-profile attempt at NATO to turn a potential military conflict over Ukraine into a political and diplomatic process. NATO diplomats say the Western alliance would consider it a success if Russia agreed to hold further talks.
Allies are ready to negotiate with Moscow on increasing openness around military drills and to avoid accidental clashes that could spark conflict, as well as arms control regarding missiles in Europe.
But the NATO allies say that many of Russia s demands, laid out in two draft treaties in December, are unacceptable, including calls to scale back the alliance s activities to 1990s era levels and promising not to take in new members.
Meanwhile, the United States Tuesday called on Moscow to comply “promptly” with Kazakhstan’s request to pull Russian troops out of the country, after Washington questioned the deployment following rare unrest there.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the United States welcomed a return to calm in the Central Asian nation after dozens died and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued shoot-to-kill orders.
“We also welcome President Tokayev’s announcement that the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) collective peacekeeping forces have completed their mission,” Price told reporters.
“Until the CSTO peacekeeping forces are withdrawn, we’ll continue to call upon all Collective Security Treaty Organization collective peacekeeping forces to respect international human rights and to uphold their commitment to promptly depart Kazakhstan as the government of Kazakhstan has requested,” he said.
Russian-led forces will start withdrawing from Kazakhstan this week after helping to quash protests that were sparked by gas price rises, but quickly escalated into riots as thousands demanded real change in the authoritarian-ruled former Soviet Republic.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who sacked his entire cabinet and requested the intervention by his country’s allies as the protests spiraled out of control, said the foreign forces that came to his rescue would soon pull out. — Reuters/AFP
