Wednesday January 12, 2022
Russia meeting without rapprochement
NATO clearly rejects security guarantees
The first meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in two years confirms one thing above all: the fronts have hardened. Neither side made any concessions in the hours of negotiations. Nevertheless, NATO boss Stoltenberg is not disappointed.
At the first meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in more than two years, there was no breakthrough: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after almost five hours of deliberations in Brussels that there were still “significant differences of opinion” with Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. The alliance is open to further negotiations.
According to Stoltenberg, the 30 NATO countries rejected Moscow’s demands for extensive security guarantees. “We will not compromise our basic principles,” said the Norwegian. Russia has “no right of veto on the question of whether Ukraine can become a NATO member”.
According to Stoltenberg, however, there is also a fundamental willingness on the Russian side to continue the dialogue and sound out a schedule for further meetings. “It is a positive sign that all NATO allies and Russia were sitting at the same table and having addressed substantial issues,” he said. The discussion was not easy, but that is precisely why the meeting was so important.
USA reaffirm international order
US Vice Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also stressed on Twitter after the negotiations: “Every country has the sovereign right to choose its own path.” She made this basic principle of international order and European security clear again in talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Gruschko. Foreign State Secretary Andreas Michaelis took part for Germany.
In the absence of rapprochement there is still “a real risk of armed conflict in Europe,” admitted Stoltenberg. The alliance accuses Russia of having raised around 100,000 soldiers and heavy equipment on the border with Ukraine. “Russia is the aggressor,” stressed the NATO Secretary General.
As a first sign of accommodation, according to Stoltenberg, NATO wants to reopen the Russian representation at its Brussels headquarters and the alliance’s office in Moscow. After suspected Russian spies were exposed at NATO headquarters in the autumn, both were closed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov had previously dampened hopes for rapprochement: With the eastward expansion, NATO was going a path of “confrontation,” he said in Moscow. Whether Russia would agree to further meetings of the NATO-Russia Council remained open, according to Stoltenberg.
Russia is demanding comprehensive security guarantees from the US and NATO in the conflict. The Kremlin wants to prevent the establishment of US army bases in states of the former Soviet sphere of influence and an eastward expansion of the military alliance to include Ukraine or Georgia. According to Western intelligence services, the deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine is likely to fuel fears of an invasion of the country in order to persuade NATO to make concessions.
The NATO-Russia Council was established in 2002. It met for the last time in 2019. On Thursday there will be further talks with Russia within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.