Republicans warn of increased military ties between the United States and Russia

A number of senior Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives have said they are concerned about the Pentagon’s recent request to increase coordination between the US and Russian armies, IRNA reported Tuesday, citing Hill’s website.

Gen. Mike Millie, Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently stated that the U.S. and Russian military should have effective and constructive tools for military-to-military communication to clearly understand each other’s positions on a number of very challenging issues and to reduce tensions. Help in any critical situation.

Gen. Mike Millie’s remarks come as the US government hopes to provide Moscow with assistance in countering extremist groups in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, a number of members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Armed Forces, as well as the State and Armed Services Committees of the US House of Representatives, said that such contacts could have negative consequences.

Republican Senators James Reich and James Einhofe, and Republican Michael McCall and Mike Rogers, two Republican lawmakers, wrote in a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Anthony Blinken: We are deeply concerned about the Washington administration’s negotiations with Moscow to secure access to Russian military facilities in Central Asia, as well as negotiations on military cooperation on counter-terrorism with Moscow, according to media reports.

The US lawmakers argued that inviting Russia to negotiate was neither vital nor necessary for US counterterrorism goals, nor was it in the direction of a “stable and predictable” relationship with Moscow that the Biden administration wanted.

Gen. Milli spoke for six hours with General Valery Grasimov in Helsinki, Finland, a few days ago, after which he said that the two countries’ armed forces should be allowed to negotiate with their Russian counterparts; An issue that is not currently legal in the United States.

The Republican lawmakers argued that for Russia, gathering information from the United States and its allies is more important than helping to prevent joint terrorist threats and conflicts.

The senators and lawmakers warned that any move to coordinate base access, as well as operations between the US and Russian armies, would violate a law passed by Congress in 2016 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

It was previously reported that a new round of talks between Russia and the United States on strategic stability (missile and nuclear issues) will take place on September 30 (October 8). The talks will be held in person in Geneva.