Wendy Sherman says it herself. The number two of the US State Department does not address diplomatic dialogue with Russia in terms of ” confidence “, but results. For now, talking to each other is in itself a step forward, compared to threats of Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the verbal escalation of recent weeks. The diplomat and her counterpart Sergei Riabkov, who spoke for nearly eight hours on Monday January 10 in Geneva, have known each other for a long time. They have developed a professional familiarity which facilitates the respect of forms.
The two sides pledged to continue this strategic stability dialogue. But on the merits, Russia and the United States maintain irreconcilable positions – confirmed in the press after the meeting – on a central point of dispute: the formal renunciation, demanded by Moscow, of any further enlargement of the Treaty Organization. of the North Atlantic (NATO). The NATO-Russia Council meeting on January 12 is expected to highlight this chasm.
Russia, which has nearly 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, asks the Atlantic Alliance to reverse its formal commitment made at the Bucharest summit in spring 2008, a few months before the war in Georgia . At the time, the Alliance countries had “Decided that [la Géorgie et l’Ukraine] would become members of NATO ”, according to the final press release. Today, the Alliance is in no rush to translate this promise into action. It is more focused on updating its strategic concept.
Threat of sanctions against Russia
But Moscow wants this abandonment to be formalized on the occasion of the organization’s next summit, at the end of June in Madrid. “Significant legal guarantees, in reinforced concrete, are essential to us, and not promises”, explained Sergei Riabkov. The Russian diplomat suspects that such a demand is unacceptable to Washington, in various ways. In principle, Russia cannot dictate its terms to the Alliance, in the name of its sphere of influence and in disregard of the right of these peoples to decide on their geostrategic orientation. Second, such a renunciation would cause an existential crisis in NATO, among its newer members in Eastern Europe. “We will not accept that one country has a veto over another, when it comes to being part of the NATO alliance”, explained Wendy Sherman. Likewise, the idea of a decrease in the American military presence in Eastern Europe “Is not a topic of conversation”, according to the diplomat.
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