Moscow Russia January 10, ANI Sputnik The new round of talks on strategic stability between the high-level delegations of the United States and Russia will begin on Monday in Geneva, but both countries have expressed concerns about the de-escalation of tensions in Europe.
The American delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will be heading into the talks with their own proposals on possible scaling down military exercises and missile placement in Europe to test Moscow's resolve to move forward diplomatically.
The White House has repeatedly stressed that it is not planning to discuss all of Russia's draft proposals, which mostly focused on legally binding guarantees that NATO will not move closer to Russian borders and that the alliance will not threaten the country's security. Washington said that Moscow has no right to decide who can join the bloc and membership issues cannot be discussed bilaterally.
The US will not consider scaling down its military presence in Europe and will demand full reciprocity in any areas with Russia where progress can be made, including issues of offensive missile systems in Ukraine and scope of military exercises near each other's territories. The White House stated that it was not optimistic about the talks and had a more realistic approach.
Russia has always expressed regret over confrontational rhetoric coming from the US ahead of the talks and warned that there will be no more dialogue if Washington doesn't acknowledge Moscow's security concerns. Russia will not make unilateral concessions and will leave the talks if the other side doesn't have an understanding of what Moscow needs in regards to firm security guarantees, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who will be in charge of the negotiations in Geneva.
After the US-Russia talks, a Russia-NATO council will meet in Brussels and a consultation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe will take place in Vienna.