Russia laid out its demands for security guarantees in Brussels to NATO‘s 30 allies on Wednesday but insisted they were not ultimatums following intense talks with the United States in Geneva that failed to break the deadlock, according to Reuters.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg received Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko at allied headquarters to try to defuse the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War over Russia massing troops near its border with Ukraine.
Moscow has dismissed concerns expressed by the United States that it may be planning to invade its neighbour and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said live-fire exercises on the Ukraine border on Tuesday were not linked to the NATO talks.
„We are not negotiating from a position of strength; there is not, and nor can there be, any place for ultimatums here,” said Peskov in Moscow as the talks were getting underway in Brussels.
NATO allies say the talks, the highest-profile attempt at the alliance to turn a potential conflict over Ukraine into a political process, are taking place because of Russian aggression, not the other way around.
NATO diplomats say the Western alliance would consider it a success if Russia agreed to hold further talks. Allies are ready to negotiate with Moscow on increasing openness around military drills and to avoid accidental clashes that could spark conflict, as well as arms control regarding missiles in Europe.
But the NATO allies say that many of Russia’s demands, laid out in two draft treaties in December, are unacceptable, including calls to scale back the alliance’s activities to 1990s era levels and promising not to take in new members.
Bridling at NATO’s expansion eastward into its old Soviet sphere of influence, the Kremlin sees the U.S.-led alliance’s deterrents and military modernisation as a threat.
Grushko, a former Russian ambassador to NATO, has said Russia wants to avoid confrontation. His direct colleague Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who held talks with the United States in Geneva but who was not in Brussels on Wednesday has said Ukraine must never be allowed to join NATO.
NATO has no immediate plans to admit Ukraine but says Russia cannot dictate its relations with other sovereign states.
Talks will continue this week in Vienna at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a broader body where Russia, the United States and Europeans are represented.