ANALYSIS - US Reply To Russian Security Proposals 'Constructive' Despite No Stop To NATO Expansion

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th February, 2022) A leaked US response to Russia's security proposals looks more promising than the one attributed to NATO despite Washington's refusal to shut the alliance's door to Ukraine, experts told Sputnik.

The Spanish daily El Pais published confidential replies on Wednesday that the United States and NATO gave Russia in response to its demands for an end to NATO expansion eastward and legally binding guarantees that no mid-range or shorter-range missiles would be deployed in Ukraine.

The US confirmed the authenticity of its "non-paper," while NATO declined to comment on a leak. But the military bloc's purported response largely repeats what its chief told Russia in recent weeks. Nikolai Sokov, a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation, said that, if authentic, it represented a laundry list of demands that required Russia to "follow NATO consensus without giving it any voice."

"I think that (Russia-NATO) channel can now be safely considered closed. Any issues concerning NATO will be discussed with Washington and it will be (US President Joe' Biden's job to talk to allies," he suggested.

The US response, on the contrary, offered more leeway for future talks with Russia on "arrangements or agreements... to address our respective security concerns," including arms control for land-based missiles and a transparency mechanism to confirm the absence of US cruise missiles in Romania and Poland, as well as reciprocal commitments to refrain from sending offensive missile systems and combat troops to Ukraine. Washington did make it clear from the start that it "continues to firmly support NATO's Open Door Policy."

"US response was more constructive. Predictably, they did not accept the Russian non-enlargement demand but practical proposals on arms control and confidence building measures are something to discuss," Sokov said.

"Non-enlargement will remain on the�agenda without progress.

Russia will not take it off the table but as long as US is constructive on practical arms control and confidence building issues that disagreement will not prevent Russia from engaging in negotiations," he went on to say.

The security expert called a possible US-Russia missile agreement a "low-hanging fruit" since Washington and Brussels had been actively discussing the agreement and seemed ready to engage. He suggested that any outstanding issues could be resolved with minimal effort as long as there was a political decision.

M. V. Ramana, the director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia and chair in global and human security at the UBC's school of Public Policy and Global Affairs, welcomed this "important advancement" in the talks on nuclear arms in Europe as a step away from the brink of war over Ukraine.

"Even if Russia's main demand might not have been adequately addressed, the willingness to negotiate some possibly thorny security disputes is a step forward from where we are and could move us to a lower risk of war," he told Sputnik.

Marc Finaud, the head of arms proliferation at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, said to Sputnik that the most important thing now was to look toward the future and give priority to diplomacy and dialogue over military confrontation.

The former diplomat said it was high time that limits on nuclear weapons and missile deployment in Europe were discussed because they had a direct bearing on the continent's security. He suggested that an arrangement on the absence of US cruise missiles in Poland and Romania and of ground-based missiles at select Russian sites could pave the way for more ambitious measures.

Finaud said that further security negotiations were "likely to succeed if there is military deescalation and good will on all sides." He argued that there was no alternative to common security and cooperation to solve protracted conflicts and misunderstandings.