No breakthrough but US and Russia agree to continue talks on Ukraine

News, US January 22, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. and Russia agree to keep talking to resolve Ukraine crisis

U.S. and Russia made no major breakthrough at talks on Ukraine on Friday but agreed to keep talking to try to resolve the crisis.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Switzerland in the latest round of series of high-level talks that the Biden administration hopes will stave off a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Both diplomats said that they plan to speak again as they left the door open to another conversation between President Biden and President Vladimir Putin to try to resolve the crisis. Blinken described the talks as “frank and substantive” while Lavrov called them “useful, honest discussion.”

Mutual ground

“Based on the conversations we’ve had — the extensive conversations — over the past week and today here in Geneva I think there are grounds for and a means to address some of the mutual concerns that we have about security,” Blinken said. Based on the conversation in Geneva, the two countries agreed to have follow-on conversations at the level of foreign ministers initially. “And if it proves useful and productive for the two presidents to meet, to talk, to engage to try to carry things forward, I think we’re fully prepared to do that,” Blinken said.

The two diplomats also discussed Iran, which is one area on which the United States and Russia can work together on security issues of shared concern. Blinken’s deputy, Wendy Sherman, and Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, also met in Geneva last week.

Blinken warns of swift response if Russia invades Ukraine

After the talks in Geneva, Secretary Blinken warned of a “swift, severe and united response“ from the United States and its allies if Russia invades Ukraine. “We also know from experience that Russia has an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks, paramilitary tactics, and other means of advancing their interests aggressively without overtly using military action. Those types of Russian aggression will also be met with a decisive, calibrated, and united response,” he added.

Russia says it has worries of its own

Lavrov said that Russia had worries of its own, “not about invented threats, but real facts that no one hides — pumping Ukraine with weapons, sending hundreds of Western military instructors.” Lavrov also said that Moscow would understand whether talks were on the right track once it had received a written response to its security demands from the United States. “I can’t tell you if we’re on the right track or the wrong track. We’ll understand this when we receive the American response on paper to all the points in our proposal,” Lavrov said.

Blinken told his counterpart that the United States would provide written responses next week to Russia’s demands that the West unwind its military presence in Eastern Europe.

Ukraine’s military intelligence estimates that 127,000 Russian troops are now deployed within attacking distance, including in Ukraine’s northern neighbor, Belarus.