MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will lead security talks in Geneva on Jan. 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, amid rising tensions over Ukraine.
Russia is then set to hold talks with NATO in Brussels on Jan. 12, before a broader meeting including Russia, the United States and other European countries on Jan. 13, which Russia’s foreign ministry said would take place in Vienna.
Russia has alarmed Western countries by massing tens of thousands of troops near its border with Ukraine in the past two months. Moscow denies planning to attack Ukraine and says it has the right to move its troops on its own soil as it sees fit.
Moscow, worried by what it says is the West’s re-arming of Ukraine, has said it wants legally-binding guarantees from the NATO military alliance over its eastern expansion and weapons deployment.
“During the talks we will seek firm legal guarantees of Russia’s security from the U.S. side, namely that NATO will not move eastwards and that weapons systems threatening Russia will not be deployed near our borders,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, told a briefing on Thursday.
The Jan. 13 talks will involve the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the United States and its NATO allies, as well as Russia, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden are scheduled to hold a phone call at 2030 GMT on Thursday.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Gareth Jones)
