US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has told reporters that Russia’s proposed limit on the expansion of NATO further into Eastern Europe is a “non-starter.” However, she said that progress in talks with Moscow is possible.
Sherman on Monday met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in Geneva, Switzerland. Called to discuss a series of security proposals offered to the US and NATO by Moscow, the Cold War-style meeting lasted more than seven hours.
Afterwards, Sherman told reporters that the pair found some room for progress. She said that US officials are “open to discussing” the size and scope of NATO military exercises in Europe “on a reciprocal basis,” and suggested that the US could alter its placement of missiles in Europe to better accommodate Russian security concerns.
Both sides remain deadlocked, however, on one of the most crucial of Moscow’s demands: that NATO cease taking in new members from the former Warsaw Pact states. Sherman called this idea a “non-starter,” saying that the US “will not allow anyone to slam closed the door to NATO membership to anyone.”
Declassified documents have previously revealed that during the dying days of the USSR, Western leaders promised their Soviet counterparts that NATO would not expand into Eastern and Central Europe. However, the US’ current position is that no such promise was ever made, and that NATO’s membership books must remain open – even for states bordering Russia.
At the core of the dispute is Ukraine. Pro-Western factions in Ukraine aspire to join the military alliance, a move that would put Western troops and arms on Russia’s border. Moscow considers such a situation unacceptable, but NATO leaders insist that Ukraine needs protection from a potential invasion by Russia, something that Moscow has repeatedly dismissed as “hysteria.”
Sherman said that no decision on issues affecting Ukraine would be made without Ukrainian involvement, and said that talks aimed at resolving the crisis would continue.