Consult with the alliance: is the United States ready to compromise with Russia on the issue of security guarantees in Europe?

The question of Ukraine's possible membership in NATO will be decided exclusively by the alliance countries and Kiev, said Jen Psaki, spokesman for the White House.

So the official representative of the Joe Biden administration responded to a journalist's request to comment on Moscow's proposals on security guarantees in Europe.

“According to the President and the Administration, the right of sovereign states to choose their partners and allies is a fundamental principle of European security.

Over the years, it has been agreed and confirmed more than once.

This is the policy of the United States today: we support the aspiration of countries to join NATO and meet certain requirements, ”said Psaki.

The White House spokeswoman added that "Ukraine's relations with NATO is an issue that should be resolved only by Ukraine and 30 NATO allies."

In turn, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that in response to Russia's proposals, Washington will present its own list of concerns about Moscow's actions.

“We are going to discuss our concerns about Russian actions, which, in our view, are detrimental to our common interests and values ​​- common with our European allies and partners,” Price said at the briefing.

• US State Department Spokesman Ned Price

• Reuters

• © Andrew Harnik

The State Department spokesman added that Washington does not intend to negotiate with Moscow on European security issues without allies and partners from Europe.

At the same time, Price said that there are no concrete plans for discussions with Moscow regarding mutual concerns in the field of European security.

Later, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried said that Washington was ready to discuss Russian security proposals.

"The United States is ready for diplomatic interaction through a variety of channels, including bilateral interaction, the Russia-NATO Council and the OSCE," Donfried TASS quotes.

In turn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance offers the Russian Federation to hold a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in early 2022 to discuss the situation in Ukraine. 

At the same time, the head of the State Department, Anthony Blinken, stated that a number of Moscow's proposals on security are unacceptable to Washington, while the rest can be discussed.

He added that new contacts are possible at the beginning of 2022, but no new meetings between the presidents of Russia and the United States are planned yet.

According to Andrey Sidorov, head of the Department of International Organizations and World Political Processes at the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University, Moscow has chosen the right direction, insisting on bilateral negotiations with the United States on security.

“This is quite the right decision, since the main partner of NATO is the United States, they also largely provide for the financial needs of the alliance, and so on.

The United States is a key negotiator here, ”the expert noted.

Now the United States wants to drag out the process and, in a sense, is hiding behind NATO's back, talking about the need for consultations with allies, Sidorov believes.

“The United States, maneuvering and hiding behind NATO, is taking a certain time-out:“ We need to consult with our allies.

We perfectly represent our policy, we clearly know our interests, but we must consult, "the interlocutor of RT explained.

The issue of guarantees

As a reminder, the Russian Foreign Ministry on December 17 presented two draft documents on the provision of legal security guarantees from the United States and NATO.

The question of the need for such guarantees was earlier raised by Vladimir Putin during negotiations with Joe Biden.

Then Putin emphasized that Moscow insists on the provision of legally binding guarantees, since the Western countries violated the oral assurances and promises on the non-expansion of NATO to the east, which they once gave to the leadership of the USSR.

The Russian President later explained that the further expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance by admitting Kiev to it is a fundamental issue of security for Moscow.

“The expansion of the NATO bloc to the east, including at the expense of Ukraine, is one of the key issues in ensuring Russia's security in the medium and even strategic perspective.

We talk about this constantly, publicly, we warn our partners that this is unacceptable for us, "Putin said.

Speaking on Tuesday, December 21, at a meeting of the board of the Russian Defense Ministry, the president linked NATO's eastward expansion with the euphoria of Western countries from the end of the Cold War.

“Sometimes you ask yourself: why did they do all this in those conditions?

Unclear.

I think it was from euphoria in connection with the victory in the so-called Cold War or the so-called victory in the Cold War.

And because of an incorrect, incorrect assessment of the situation at that time and an illiterate, incorrect analysis of possible scenarios for the development of the situation, "the Russian leader emphasized.

“We do not demand any special, exclusive conditions for ourselves.

Russia stands for equal and indivisible security in the entire Eurasian space ... If the obviously aggressive line of our Western colleagues continues, we will take adequate military-technical measures, react toughly to unfriendly steps, ”Putin said.

Earlier, the Kremlin said that the aide to the President of the Russian Federation Yuri Ushakov gave his American counterpart Jake Sullivan explanations on the draft documents prepared by Moscow, and announced Russia's readiness to immediately begin negotiations on them.

This was stated by the press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov.

“What is very important, Ushakov communicated to Sullivan the thesis about our readiness to immediately begin negotiations on the drafts of these documents,” said Peskov.

He added that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov "will be ready at any time to fly to any neutral country to start such negotiations."

Urgent need

It is worth noting that the Foreign Ministry has already spoken out about the participation of other countries in the discussion of security guarantees.

Thus, Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov, commenting on this moment, noted that Moscow offers Washington negotiations exclusively on a bilateral basis.

“If we involve other countries in them, we will simply drown it all in debate and verbiage,” Ryabkov said.

- I hope that the Americans do not underestimate how much everything has changed, and not for the better.

And so far, unfortunately, there are no signs that they are ready to abandon their own patterns. "

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

• globallookpress.com

• © Konstantin Kokoshkin

Ryabkov added that the complexity of the current situation requires a quick response from Washington to the RF proposals.

“I think they will try to translate all this into a sluggish process, and we need it urgently, since the situation is very difficult, it is acute, and tends to further complicate,” the diplomat emphasized.

Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that Washington does not want to meet Russia halfway and agree with its proposals on the non-expansion of NATO, but at the same time it is not going to accept Ukraine into the alliance in the near future.

“The West is not interested in Ukraine's integration.

NATO's main goal today is not enlargement, but consolidation.

In addition, Ukraine's entry into the alliance increases the risk of the bloc being drawn into a conflict, for which European countries are not ready, ”the expert said.

However, even if the United States gives some guarantees to Russia, it is not a fact that they will comply with them, Blokhin added.

“Therefore, the Russian leadership needs to keep the situation under control.

The United States withdrew from the ABM and INF Treaty not to return everything back.

Therefore, one should not expect that now something will radically change.

Washington may continue to pressure to try to change the trajectory of Russia's foreign policy and try to force it to accept the status of the junior partner of the West.

However, this does not suit the Russian Federation, which counts on an equal dialogue, ”the expert noted.

In turn, Vladimir Batyuk, Chief Researcher at the Institute for the United States and Canada, stated that Russia, along with China, remains the main rival of the United States and NATO in the international arena.

The interlocutor of RT recalled that this is reflected in the strategy of the alliance and policy documents of Washington.

“In this case, we are dealing with the ideological decisions of the Western ruling circles, which made conclusions for themselves about the incompatibility of liberal democracy with the Russian one,” the expert explained.

Therefore, the reluctance of the United States to compromise on the issue of Ukraine's possible NATO membership in the context of Russian fears is quite predictable, Batyuk added.

“Despite the position of Washington, I would like to hope that there will still be a dialogue and that it will be possible to agree on confidence-building measures, limiting the scale of military exercises, preventing incidents on the high seas and airspace.

This could reduce tensions in the border regions of the Russian Federation and in Europe, would prevent the possibility of armed incidents and their escalation into large-scale military conflicts, ”the analyst concluded.