Moscow-Washington Efforts to hold talks amid fierce confrontation

According to IRNA on Tuesday from Moscow, the attempt to resume the Putin-Biden talks comes at a time when, according to experts, the confrontation between Washington and Moscow on various issues has reached its peak, and Washington has openly declared Russia, along with China, its number one enemy. he does.

At a meeting in Geneva in June 1400, the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, agreed to resume talks on strategic stability between the two countries (issues related to the deployment of strategic weapons and nuclear missiles). However, relations between Russia and the United States have not improved significantly since the Geneva summit. Although the Kremlin says it will take a long time to restore relations, the White House is not interested in easing tensions, even in the long run, and has opted to maintain the status quo with Moscow.

Putin-Biden upcoming meeting before the end of this year
Dmitry Peskov, Spokesman for the President of the Russian Federation, appeared on the TV channel “Russia 1” entitled “Moscow. The Kremlin. “The exact date of the next meeting between Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart is not yet known, but at the same time he confirmed that the next meeting between the two presidents will be held virtually.”

White House spokesman Jen Saki told a news conference last Friday that she could not immediately comment on the upcoming presidents’ meeting.

Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told reporters that Moscow and Washington “will not hesitate” to hold a new meeting of the presidents, adding that talks between the two presidents could take place before the end of this year.

Extensive agenda
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, for his part, stressed on Sunday that “basic negotiations are needed for these talks to take place, and that is what we are working on, and the parties have worked on forming working groups.”

The formation of the working groups is an issue that the two sides agreed on in late September during the “second round of consultations in the framework of the bilateral dialogue on strategic stability”.

According to Russian media reports, two working groups have been formed, including “Principles and Future Goals of Arms Control” and “Capacities and Actions That Can Have a Strategic Impact.”

The US had initially proposed four working groups on “doctrines”, “space”, “nuclear weapons” and “new technologies”, but Russian negotiators insisted that space and missile defense issues should not be separated. And the two sides finally agreed to set up two working groups.

According to IRNA and quoting the Russian media “Kommersant”, Vladimir Leontev, Deputy Director General for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vasily Boryak, Deputy Director General for North America of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are chairing the working groups on behalf of Russia. will have.

Alexander Bell, Senior Researcher at the State Department’s Office of Arms Control, Inspection and Compliance, and Eric Desotels, Interim Assistant Secretary-General, will chair the working groups on behalf of the United States.

In addition to diplomats, representatives of the defense ministries of both countries, as well as people from some other specialized bodies, will be present in these working groups, and the first round of consultations of the working groups will be held in Geneva in December. Shortly afterwards, the third general meeting of Russian-American negotiators is scheduled to take place in Geneva.

The Presidents of the two countries will have to assess in future contacts how the implementation of the agreements reached during their first meeting (in June) will proceed.

As Sergei Ryabkov put it on Russia 1, the agenda for the next round of talks is “strategic stability,” “cybersecurity,” “prisoner exchanges,” “embassy wars,” as well as international issues, especially in Ukraine. Which the presidents of Russia and the United States will talk about.

A new topic in the upcoming talks between the presidents of Russia and the United States

Russia is likely to raise a new issue in the upcoming talks between the two presidents. Last week, Vladimir Putin personally raised the issue at a meeting of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s interdepartmental council, instructing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to seek Western countries. “Serious long-term security guarantees to Russia” Give. “Obviously this issue will also be on the agenda of the contacts that can be made,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters last Friday.

US Policy Towards Russia: “Guided or Stable Confrontation”

Efforts to hold talks between the two leaders come as the confrontation between Washington and Moscow on a variety of issues has escalated, with Washington publicly slamming Russia and China, according to Dmitry Suslov, deputy director and researcher at the Center for European and International Studies at the Russian School of Economics. Washington’s number one enemy.

According to him, considering the impossibility and unwillingness of the United States to reduce the intensity of the confrontation with Russia, it can be concluded that the global confrontation with China and Russia is really the new axis of US foreign policy and a basis for designing US national interests and determining The scale of their presence and the type of their commitments have changed in different parts of the world and will remain so in the near future.

“Of course, the US foreign policy framework for Russia is a ‘guided or stable confrontation’, so they are not interested in escalating or resolving tensions in this confrontation,” said Dmitry Suslov at the Parents International Debate Club. They will not be.

Russia has called the talks with US sanctions unacceptable

The United States, which has always sought ways to pressure Russia as its rival superpower in the East, is now seeking a new excuse to create tension in the region by claiming that the presence of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border is a threat to the country. Increasing pressure on Russia.

Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said in response to the US decision to impose new sanctions on the Stream 2 gas pipeline that he considered the dialogue with the US sanctions unacceptable. “The United States’ attempt to negotiate with Russia, along with sanctions, is unacceptable and violates international law,” he told the media.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in Senegal last week that Washington was genuinely concerned about Russia’s unusual activities on the Ukrainian border.

The United States has claimed that Russia and Kiev have made serious moves on the border with Ukraine. Ukraine has called on the United States to put immediate security support, including intelligence, on its agenda.