On Friday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken discussed, by phone, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, upcoming talks between NATO and Russia, on the escalation of tension between the two parties over Ukraine, a day after phone talks between Presidents Biden and Putin.

The US State Department said that NATO is ready to hold a meaningful dialogue with Russia, and "stands united to deter further aggression against Ukraine," at a time when the huge Russian military buildup continues near the Ukrainian border, and Washington threatened Moscow with imposing unprecedented sanctions on it if it launched an attack. militarily over Ukraine.

The State Department stated that Secretary Blinken also spoke with his Canadian counterpart Melanie Jolie about shared priorities, "including a strong and united response to further Russian aggression against Ukraine."

3 dates

It is expected that NATO will hold a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on January 12, 2022, in the presence of the chiefs of staff of the armies of the member states of the alliance, at NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital, Brussels.

This meeting is preceded by another security meeting between Washington and Moscow on the 9th and 10th of the same month, and a broader conference involving Russia, America and European countries will be held on January 13th.


Blinken's calls came a day after phone talks between Biden and Putin, in which each of them put forward demands to avoid an exacerbation of the military escalation between Moscow and the West because of Ukraine. The Ukrainian border is unacceptable, and the United States and its allies will respond decisively if Moscow invades Ukraine.

On the other hand, the Kremlin expressed satisfaction with Thursday's phone talks, and said that Putin told Biden that Russia wanted results, and that it was a grave mistake to impose sanctions on it. ".

Moscow obsessions

The Kremlin believes that Russia's security requires preventing any expansion of NATO to the east, and putting an end to Western military activities in Russia's vicinity, an area that Moscow considers its sphere of influence. Russia stresses that the support of the United States, NATO and the European Union for Ukraine is a direct threat to its security and interests.

In the same context, Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, said that the call between Biden and Putin "was constructive and frank, and laid a basis for the start of negotiations between the two parties."

Ushakov said that the conversation paves the way for 3 rounds of negotiations on Europe's security next month, and the Russian official added that his country takes into account the considerations of America and the rest of the Western countries in the upcoming negotiations.


On Friday, the Russian president said in his New Year's address to his countrymen that he "resolutely" defended Russia's interests in 2021, which witnessed an escalation of tensions between Moscow on the one hand and Washington and NATO on the other.

Moscow, which is concerned about what it calls the West's rearmament of Ukraine, says it wants legally binding guarantees that NATO will not expand further east, while not providing Ukraine or other neighboring countries with certain offensive weapons.

On the field level, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Friday accused the pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbass region of violating the ceasefire 3 times in the past 24 hours.

The ministry said that the militants used heavy weapons prohibited under the Minsk agreement, including artillery shells, grenade launchers of various systems, and heavy-caliber machine guns.