Russia sets out demands at NATO meeting

Russia has begun to lay out its demands for security guarantees in Europe to NATO’s 30 allies, following intense talks with the United States in Geneva that showed the two sides have major differences to bridge.

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, triggered primarily by a confrontation over Ukraine , which the United States says Russia is planning to invade.

Moscow dismisses such claims, though it is massing troops near the Ukrainian border.

The talks in the NATO-Russian Council include NATO envoys, ministers and a Russian delegation led by Grushko. They are the highest-profile attempt at NATO to turn a potential military conflict over Ukraine into a political and diplomatic process.

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.

“Let’s be clear: Russian actions have precipitated this crisis. We are committed to using diplomacy to de-escalate the situation,” US envoy to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters on Tuesday evening.

“We want to see … Russia pulling back its forces,” she said of the 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine.

Bridling at NATO’s expansion eastward into its old Soviet sphere of influence, the Kremlin sees the US-led alliance’s deterrents and military modernisation as a threat.

Russia staged live-fire exercises with troops and tanks near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday while sounding a downbeat note over prospects for more talks with the United States.

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 Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a broader body where Russia, the United States and Europeans are represented.

“Our main goal is, in principle, to establish a dialogue. I think it is worth noting separately that there are no negotiations as such this week,” US ambassador to the OSCE, Michael Carpenter, said according to a US transcript of an interview with Russia’s TV Rain (Dozhd) published on Wednesday.