A third set of talks this week aimed at defusing tensions over Russia’s troop buildup near its border with Ukraine is set to take place on January 13 when the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meets in Vienna.
Moscow and Washington have already underlined their “fundamental” differences on European security during tense talks earlier this week in Geneva and Brussels, and the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE has admitted no breakthrough is expected at the meeting on January 13.
“I don’t think there will be any concrete results this week. Our main goal is, in principle, to establish a dialogue,” said Michael Carpenter.
“Yes, our positions are polar, but this does not mean that there are no elements and areas on which we cannot agree,” he told independent Russian TV channel Dozhd.
The challenge, he said, is to “determine in what forms it is generally possible to deepen the dialogue on this issue in the next few months or even a year.”
The OSCE meeting will be its first of the year and will be attended by all 57 member states.
In addition to the discussion on the tensions caused by Russia’s troop buildup, the meeting will hear Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau present his country’s priorities for this year’s OSCE chairmanship.
The meeting will be the last in a week of heavy diplomacy touched off by Western accusations that Moscow is massing tanks, artillery, and about 100,000 soldiers on Ukraine’s war-torn eastern border.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said after the talks in Brussels at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council that a “serious and direct exchange” had taken place.
Stoltenberg said there were “significant differences between NATO allies and Russia on this issue” after the four-hour NATO-Russia Council meeting.
“Our differences will not be easy to bridge, but it is a positive sign that all NATO allies and Russia sat down around the same table and engaged on substantive topics,” he added.
The NATO chief said the alliance stood its ground in rejecting to Moscow’s demands for a new security architecture in Europe, reiterating NATO’s position that Ukraine has a right to decide its future security arrangements and that Russia had no right to veto NATO admitting new members.
Those are among the Russian demands laid out last month amid concern over the troop buildup, which Western capitals fear could be a prelude to an invasion.
Moscow insists the military deployment is a response to what it sees as the growing presence of NATO in its sphere of influence and denies it plans to invade Ukraine.
At a lengthy news conference after the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said that NATO’s expansion poses a threat to Russia’s security, but that Russia willing to talk about weapons deployment and verification measures.
“It’s absolutely imperative to end the policy of open doors and offer Russia legally binding guarantees precluding further NATO’s expansion eastward,” Grushko said. “The freedom to choose ways of ensuring one’s security mustn’t be implemented in a way that infringes of legitimate security interests of others.”
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the top American negotiator at the Geneva talks, also took part in the meeting in Brussels.
She called on Russia to stay at the negotiating table to discuss Ukraine and other issues, including arms control.
“If Russia walks away…it will be quite apparent they were never serious about pursuing diplomacy and that is why collectively we are preparing for every eventuality,” Sherman said.
