The United States has not ceased to hammer it in recent days, on the sidelines of the discussions initiated with Russia on the security of the continent: “Nothing will be decided on Europe without Europe. » In fact, the promise of the Biden administration was accompanied by a real effort of consultations with continental allies, concerned regarding being sidelined, at the request of Vladimir Putin. However, the exchanges organized in recent weeks seem to be reaching their limits, at least seen from Paris and Berlin.
Before seeing the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva (Switzerland), Friday January 21, Antony Blinken, the American secretary of State, was in Berlin, Thursday, to meet his German counterparts Annalena Baerbock, French Jean- Yves Le Drian as well as the British Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs. “Current consultations consist of debriefing us on negotiations with the Russians, but we want real coordination, prior to negotiations, now that we are getting into the hard part, said a diplomat, this is no longer a bilateral Russian- American. »
Basically, while the Americans and Europeans reject the bulk of Russian demands as a whole, including the freezing of the enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance (NATO), the differences in approach are felt in three major areas: the reality of the threats hanging over Ukraine, the attitude to adopt in the event of an escalation and the sensitive question of the sanctions brandished to dissuade Russia from attacking.
Thus, both France and Germany continue to be perplexed by the alarmism of the United States and the United Kingdom, which consider that an attack in Ukraine would be imminent, given the deployment of Russian forces at the country’s borders. . “We see the same number of trucks, tanks, personnel. We observed the same movements, but we cannot deduce from all this that an offensive is imminent., we observe at the Elysée. Perhaps our British and American allies have intelligence that allows them to say that the offensive is imminent. But in this case, it must be shared. » According to this diplomat, a number of indicators of an attack would not be “not visible” at this stage, such as the transport of troops or the delivery of fuel.
“We need clarity”
In this context, the French presidency fears an uncontrolled slippage: “We must not allow a context of volatility to take hold in which, basically, an accident has happened too quickly, and where we find ourselves in a self-fulfilling situation”, we warn once more.
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