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Russia said it had “little cause for optimism” on Thursday after the US rejected Moscow’s demands to roll back Nato’s expansion, but left the door open for further diplomacy as the West seeks to defuse tension over a possible invasion of Ukraine.
“You can’t say that our ideas were taken on board or [that the US and Nato] showed any kind of preparedness to listen to our concerns,” Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters.
Mr Peskov said Russia would send the US a formal response to its reply after receiving written answers to two draft security proposals on Wednesday but said the Kremlin would take its time to analyse them.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said the US response “allowed us to count on the start of a serious conversation, but on secondary issues. There’s no positive reaction in the document on the main issue,” according to Interfax.
The US has said it is willing to co-operate with Russia on issues such as arms control and force deployments but has said Russia’s core demands, which would essentially rewrite the post-cold war security order in Europe, are unacceptable.
China talks
Separately, China has told the United States it wants to see all sides involved in Ukraine remain calm and avoid increasing tension while the United States stressed de-escalation and warned of the security and economic risks from Russian aggression.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke about Ukraine on a telephone call late on Wednesday.
“We call on all parties to stay calm and refrain from doing things that agitate tensions and hype up the crisis,” Mr Wang told Mr Blinken, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Secretary Blinken . . . conveyed that de-escalation and diplomacy are the responsible way forward,” a statement issued by the US state department said.
Global security and the economic risks posed by further Russian aggression against Ukraine figured in the talks, the department said.
Mr Wang, apparently referring to Russia’s objections to Nato’s expansion in eastern Europe, told Mr Blinken that one country’s security could not be at the expense of the security of others and regional security could not be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs, his ministry said.
The US has warned Russia not to invade Ukraine and urged both countries to return to a set of pacts known as Minsk I and Minsk II signed in 2014 and 2015, respectively, to end a separatist war by Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine.
China-Russia ties
China has been strengthening ties with Russia as tension between China and the US has been growing over a range of issues, from trade to human rights, Taiwan and China’s maritime claims.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, against whom the US has threatened personal sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, is expected to visit China next week for the Winter Olympics, which begin on February 4th.
Mr Wang told Mr Blinken that the US “continues to make mistakes in its words and deeds on China, causing new shocks to the relationship”.
“The top priority at the moment is that the US should stop interfering with the Beijing Winter Olympics, stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue, and stop creating various anti-China cliques,” he said, according to the foreign ministry.
The US, Canada, Australia and Britain have announced they will not send any state officials to the Games because of China’s human rights record. China has denied rights abuses and rejected what it calls the politicisation of sport. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022/Reuters