US sees ‘opportunity for progress’ to defuse tensions with Russia if talks held properly

The United States believes that there is still an ‘opportunity for progress’ in normalizing the tense situation with Moscow if talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin are held "in the appropriate format.” "We have been clear as the United States - and just yesterday, the 30 nations of the NATO alliance were clear in a statement that came out of the North Atlantic Council - we're prepared for dialogue with Russia, "White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington, DC.

"We've had dialogue with Russia on European security issues for the last 20 years. We had it with the Soviet Union for decades before that. That has sometimes produced progress, sometimes produced deadlock, but we are fundamentally prepared for dialogue,” US’ national security advisor said.

'We're going to put on the table our concern with Russian,' says US national security adviser

Sullivan went on to add that Russia has now put on the table its concerns with American and NATO activities, referring to Moscow’s recent document laying down conditions such as limiting activities of the US-led Nato military alliance in the region. “We're going to put on the table our concern with Russian activities that we believe harm our interest and values. That's the basis of reciprocity upon which you would pursue any kind of dialogue,” Sullivan stressed. 

At a press conference earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the US will not hold dialogue with Russia alone, there will be “no talks on European security without our European allies and partners.”

Psaki's remarks came after Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-affiliated press that Russia has given the US and NATO two draft treaties that lay down a set of radical demands for the countries that join the transatlantic alliance NATO. The demands mention the “red lines” as spoken previously by the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the security guarantees from both United States and NATO to curb NATO’s eastward military expansion and remove weaponry installed after 1997. Russia seeks to prohibit the US from providing military assistance to the former Soviet states and stop all military exercises in the Eastern European region, Central Asia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. 

The UN welcomed the Russian-US strategic security dialogue and the negotiation efforts, as the Russian President Vladimir Putin asked NATO to commence the substantive talks to give a legal binding for long-term security guarantees to Russia. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov Ushakov told TASS that Russia has asked the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to begin talks on draft documents on security guarantees with Moscow’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier yesterday that the US has seen Russia’s demands and is in the process of discussing them with European allies.