The chief diplomats of the United States and Russia will meet in Sweden on Thursday (December 2) as tensions have increased after Washington expressed concern about Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine and warned of “high-impact” sanctions.
US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken and Russian Secretary of State Sergey Lavrov will hold talks near Stockholm during the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial meeting.
The OSCE is one of the few international dialogue forums to which both the United States and Russia belong.
Since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, the agency’s mission has been to monitor compliance with a peace agreement aimed at resolving conflicts with separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Fearing a possible invasion, Kiev’s Western allies have been warning in recent weeks that Russia is gathering troops on the Ukrainian border.
Moscow, accused of supporting separatists fighting against Kiev, denies preparing to launch an attack and accuses NATO of causing tensions.
‘We will respond firmly’
At the NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday, Brinken said that he was “deeply concerned about the evidence that Russia has planned a major aggression against Ukraine.”
“We don’t know whether President Putin made the decision to invade. We do know that if he makes such a decision, he is building the ability to do so in the short term,” he said.
Brinken insisted that “diplomacy is the only responsible way to resolve this potential crisis”, but warned that if Moscow advances any aggressive behavior, it will have “far-reaching and lasting consequences” for Moscow.
Blinken said: “We made it clear to the Kremlin that we will make a firm response, including a series of high-impact economic measures that we have avoided in the past.”
Moscow fired back on Wednesday, accusing Ukraine of gathering tens of thousands of troops in the east of the country because of growing concerns about the escalation of the situation.
Putin also called for talks with the West, aimed at providing “legal guarantees” for NATO’s further eastward expansion and the deployment of any weapon system near the Russian border.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union and most of Eastern Europe joined the US-led bloc, Moscow refused to accept that Ukraine might one day follow suit-even though Kiev’s accession negotiations are currently at a deadlock.
In the case of Ukrainian President Volodmir Zelensky, he called for direct talks with Moscow on the worsening conflict in eastern Ukraine with separatists, which has caused 13,000 deaths.
‘crucial moment’
Before meeting Lavrov, Brinken will hold talks with Ukrainian President Kuleba on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting held near Stockholm Arlanda Airport.
In addition to Ukraine, other issues that may be discussed include the immigration crisis on the Belarus-EU border and the renewed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is a member of the OSCE.
Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the OSCE, said that the OSCE meeting was planned long ago and “held at a critical moment” because tensions soared at the door of Europe.
The US State Department stated that the European Union reached an agreement on new sanctions against Belarus on Wednesday, and the United States will soon follow suit.
The OSCE plenary meeting of ministers is not expected to lead to the adoption of any major agreements, because unanimous agreement is required.
Moscow often obstructs resolutions on Ukraine because Crimea is described as Ukraine or Russia is described as a direct participant in the conflict, while Moscow officials regard it as an internal conflict in Ukraine.
The Brinken-Lavrov talks are the first high-level meeting between the two superpowers since President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin held their summit in Geneva in June.
The two foreign ministers met at the Arctic Council meeting in Iceland in May.
