© Martial Trezzini
Antony Blinken (left) and Sergei Lavrov (right) as they arrive at the Geneva meeting on Friday.
Status quo and near-zero optimism. Discussions between the United States and Russia, this Friday in Geneva, to try to defuse the crisis in Ukraine, have opened in an icy atmosphere. The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, seated opposite his American counterpart, Antony Blinken, immediately said that he did not expect “to a breakthrough» in the negotiations. Equally encouraging, Antony Blinken promised a response “united, fast and severe” in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, but assured that the United States continued to seek a diplomatic solution.
The meeting, which is being held in one of the palaces on the shores of Lake Geneva, should only last two hours, before the two men speak separately to the press.
Intense diplomatic ballet
Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken, who know each other well, shook hands around 10 a.m. before getting to the heart of the matter before the journalists were even escorted from the meeting room. This meeting is the last pas de deux of an intense diplomatic ballet, Washington suspecting Moscow of wanting to invade Ukraine, which the Kremlin denies while maintaining some 100,000 soldiers along its neighbor’s border.
In front of the flags of the two countries, the two seasoned diplomats and their teams meet in a conference room of President Wilson’s hotel, seated at two long tables – seven people on each side – covered with white tablecloths and decorated with small bouquets purple orchids.
Less than twenty minutes before the start of the meeting, Russia let it be known from Moscow that it wanted the withdrawal of NATO foreign troops from Romania and Bulgaria as part of a treaty which it demands for a de-escalation of the Ukrainian crisis.
Antony Blinken arrives on the shores of Lake Geneva following a quick tour of Kiev, to reassure Westerners of support, in Berlin, with Germany, France and the United Kingdom to reaffirm the solidity of the Allied front. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed threats of US retaliation by warning that Russia should expect costs “considerable and serious” in the event of military aggression by Ukraine.