JAKARTA - Russia and the United States (US) gave no sign of narrowing their differences over Ukraine and European security at talks in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday as Moscow again repeated demands that Washington said were unacceptable.
Russia is said to have amassed troops near the Ukrainian border, demanding that the US-led NATO alliance set aside recognizing the former Soviet Union, or expand further into what Moscow sees as its backyard.
"Unfortunately we have big differences in our principled approach to this. The US and Russia in some ways have opposing views on what needs to be done," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a news conference, citing Reuters on January 11.
"We are resolute in pushing back non-starter security proposals to the United States," US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said in a separate telephone briefing after nearly eight hours of talks with Ryabkov.
However, Sherman also hinted at the possibility of a mutual compromise, saying Washington was open to discussing missile deployments in Europe as well as limiting the size and scope of military exercises.
Washington and Kyiv say 100.000 Russian troops moving within close proximity of Ukraine could prepare for a new invasion, eight years after Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from its neighbor.
Russia denies any such plans and says it is responding to what it calls the aggressive behavior of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukraine, which leans towards the West and aspires to join the alliance.
Ryabkov repeated a series of demands, including a ban on further NATO expansion and an end to its activities in the central and eastern European countries that joined after 1997.
"For us, it is absolutely mandatory to ensure that Ukraine never, never will become a member of NATO," he said. "We don't trust the other party."
“We need an iron-clad, waterproof, bullet-proof, and legally binding guarantee. Not a guarantee, not a security, a guarantee with all the words 'must, must', everything that must be included, 'never be a member of NATO'. Russia's national security issue," he added.
"We will not allow anyone to slam NATO's closed-door policy of open doors," Sherman told reporters, saying the United States "will not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, about Europe without Europe, or about NATO without NATO."
Russia complained the US side showed no understanding of the urgency of the situation. Although there is no deadline. According to Ryabkov, Russia is not ready to wait weeks or months.
He said Russia needed to look at NATO's moves, and failure to provide it would be a mistake that would undermine NATO's own security.
"Russia will respond in a military-technical way if the talks stall," she said.
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However, Russia does not see the situation in talks with the US on security guarantees as pointless.
"I don't think this situation is hopeless. I think the use of the talks in Geneva is primarily in the fact that we can for the first time discuss issues that were previously sort of invisible," Ryabkov said, TASS reported.
As for Sherman, he underlined, if Russia left the talks, it would be clear that it was never serious about diplomacy.
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