Russian and US national flags during bilateral US-Russia security talks in GenevaWASHINGTON, Jan 14, 2019 Former Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs, former US Ambassador to the Russian Federation Thomas Pickering, following the results of negotiations between the delegations of the two countries in Geneva, saw the possibility of progress in overcoming the differences between Moscow and Washington on the topic of missile deployment and expressed the opinion that Russia should respond to this. On Monday, Russia and the United States held a new round of dialogue on strategic stability in Geneva. It was followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels. It was followed on Thursday by consultations at the Vienna site of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The main focus of these discussions was the security proposals that the Russian side presented to the US and NATO at the end of last year against the background of the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine.The White House called the timing of the «invasion» of Russia in Ukraine «It is too early to talk about individual aspects where progress has been made, but the United States appears to be positive about imposing restrictions on the placement of missiles in some form. Russia will need to study them give an answer,» Pickering told RIA Novosti commenting on the results of the talks. The former US Deputy Secretary of State also assessed the prospects for restoring contacts between Russia and NATO, which held the first RNC meeting since 2019 this week. According to the American diplomat, «one can only hope» for progress in establishing ties between Moscow and the alliance. — he pointed out. As the interlocutor of the agency noted, the key achievement of the outgoing week is the very fact of negotiations on current security challenges, as well as planning further contacts, consideration by the parties of each other's positions and «interest in making progress in order to avoid a possible conflict.» In conclusion the former US Deputy Secretary of State added that, in the event of the failure of negotiations between Russia and NATO, the world should expect an even more dangerous confrontation than before. At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further expansion of NATO to the east, from joining the bloc of Ukraine and from creating military bases in post-Soviet countries. Russia is now the main adversary of NATO, only because it tries to firmly defend its interests. The Russian diplomat also said the US and its allies are saying «no» to Russia on key points in Russian security proposals. looking for an excuse to «invade» Ukraine
