France’s foreign minister said on Friday that Russia was trying to bypass the European Union by holding direct talks with the United States on Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Talks between US and Russian diplomats will begin in Geneva on Monday after weeks of controversy over the deployment of Russian troops near its border with neighboring Ukraine, with envoys from all sides trying to avert a crisis.
“Vladimir Putin wants to bypass the European Union … he wants to cause a rift in the consolidating EU cohesion,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM television and RMC radio. “You can not envision the security of the EU without the Europeans.”
Russia has deployed about 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, and although Moscow says it has no plans to invade its neighbor, Putin has demanded legally binding guarantees that NATO will not expand further east.
“Putin offered to talk to NATO to somehow return to the spheres of influence of the past … which would mean that Russia would restore the spirit of Yalta,” Le Drian said, referring to the allied conference in February. of 1945, which gave the Soviet Union control of its Eastern European neighbors. “That is not our view, but we must accept the debate.”
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula to the Black Sea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting sanctions and condemnation from the West. Kiev wants the return of the land.
Le Drian said any further Russian military invasion of Ukraine would have “serious strategic consequences”, with one option on the table being the revision of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
He said that despite Putin’s assurances that he had begun withdrawing his troops from the region, Paris had not yet seen this happen.
Senior French and German diplomats met with their Russian counterparts in Moscow on Thursday as part of efforts to revive peace talks in eastern Ukraine.
Progress in talks with Iran
Progress has been made on talks on Iran’s nuclear program, although time is running out, the French foreign minister said on Friday. Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on rescuing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran continued on Monday.
Western diplomats have said they hope to make a major breakthrough by the end of January or early February, but the sharp differences remain with the most difficult issues remaining unresolved. Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.
“I remain convinced that we can reach an agreement. Progress has been made in recent days,” Le Drian said. “We are moving in a positive direction in recent days, but time is of the essence, because if we do not reach an agreement quickly, there will be nothing to negotiate.”
The eighth round of talks, the first under Iran’s new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, resumed on Monday after some new Iranian demands were added to a working text.
Another positive sign this week was the arrival in Vienna of the South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister to discuss with Iran, the United States and other places the possible release of $ 7 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in the Asian country due to US sanctions. Any release must be approved by Washington.
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Source From: Capital
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