Geneva:
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Monday she offered to take reciprocal steps with Russia on missiles and exercises to de-escalate tensions, but again warned of major costs if Moscow invaded Ukraine.
After more than seven hours of talks in Geneva with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Sherman said the United States was ready for another meeting, but that Russia had not offered any guarantees that it would withdraw troops from the United States. near Ukraine.
Sherman told reporters she had offered “a number of ideas where our two countries could take mutual action that would be in our security interests and improve strategic stability.”
She declined to give full details, but said the United States has made proposals for missile placement, saying it was “open to discussing the future of certain missile systems in Europe” along the lines of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. , from which former President Donald Tromp withdrew.
“We are also open to discussing ways we can set mutual limits on the size and scope of military exercises and to improve transparency about those exercises — again, on a reciprocal basis,” she said in a telephone news conference.
She said the United States was “ready to act as quickly as possible under these circumstances,” but said the talks would take time.
She said she has ruled out a Russian appeal for guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO.
“However, we have been resolute in pushing back security proposals that are simply non-starters for the United States. We will not allow anyone to slammed on NATO’s open door policy.”
She repeated a call on Russia to withdraw its estimated 100,000 troops.
If Russia invades, “there will be significant costs and consequences, far more than they faced in 2014,” she said as Moscow took the Crimean peninsula and supported an uprising in eastern Ukraine.
When asked if Russia was ready to remove troops, Sherman said, “I don’t think we know the answer to that.”
“We made it very clear that it is very difficult to have constructive, productive and successful diplomacy without de-escalation, because the escalation clearly increases tensions and does not create an environment for real negotiations,” she said.
She said she told her Russian counterpart “to return the troops to the barracks, or tell us what exercises are going on and what your aim is.”
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