The Russian-American meeting held in Geneva was closely watched not only in Moscow and Washington. The President of Switzerland has already said that the world now more than ever needs security guarantees and stability, and that his country was ready to continue to maintain such a dialogue.
“These discussions are taking place at an extremely difficult time. While we are still in the midst of a pandemic, allowing a new crisis to happen would be a disaster not only for Europe, but for the whole world. I would characterize the atmosphere of this meeting as friendly. I had a positive feeling about the fact that Russia and the United States were able to meet and talk,” Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said.
The German Deutsche Welle writes that the breakthrough did not happen, but this is expected. The parties immediately warned that the meeting was more of a formality. The very beginning of the dialogue is important. Europe is afraid of a confrontation near the borders of Ukraine, and as the newspaper writes: it all depends on whether the parties will be able to find a diplomatic way out of the situation and relieve tension.
“Although neither side expected a breakthrough from the talks, both Blinken and Lavrov opened the door for further dialogue. Blinken called the meeting a frank exchange of views and ideas.”
From the Russian side Lavrov said after the meetingthat Moscow will receive a written response to its specific security requirements. This promise was confirmed by Blinken.
In general, the world press paid more attention to the very fact of the Russian-American meeting. As Al-Jazeera writes: such discussions can be regarded as an attempt to defuse the situation. But then he mentions that the parties continue to stand their ground.
The United States is threatening sanctions, and Russia is demanding a reduction in NATO’s presence in eastern Europe and abandoning the idea of including Ukraine in the military alliance. It is too early to talk about any compromises or preliminary agreements.
“It was clearly told to Blinken that our respected overseas partners are not Russian troops on the territory of Mexico, not Russian troops on the territory of Europe, not a single Russian soldier exists on the territory of European countries, they are not there. Therefore, everyone must be responsible for their own security and there can be no security for some, to the detriment of the security of others, everything is pretty clear here,” said Andrey Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee.
As for the new anti-Russian sanctions, even the Americans now doubt the rationality of such an approach. Biden has previously spoken of the inevitable negative consequences of such a move for Washington itself.
“The American establishment is now divided in its assessments of what is happening. There are hawks who demand very tough sanctions, and there are sensible heads who insist on negotiations. It seems to me that this trend is towards negotiations and towards the fact that some kind of at least the statement of the neutral zone, which will be further strengthened by some positive elements, will continue,” said Alexander Petrov, chief researcher at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Now the answer lies with the American side, and as the world press writes, it will be possible to talk about some kind of breakthrough in the negotiations only when Washington responds in writing to Moscow’s proposals on security guarantees.