Polish officials also seemed pleased with the American and NATO responses to Moscow’s demands. “Our position is clear,” Lukasz Jasina, the spokesman for Poland’s foreign minister, said. “Only NATO and member countries decide about NATO matters. And no one else.”
Russia is a neighbor but cannot be allowed to pressure others, said Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz. “What Russia has left is intimidation, but as this smaller partner, with a diminishing role in the world, the argument that ‘if you do not listen to us, we will beat the smaller colleague’ cannot be taken into account.”
After Monday’s talks, Sergei A. Ryabkov, who led the Russian side, warned that if the West did not agree to Russia’s demands to pull back NATO’s footprint in Eastern Europe and reject any future membership for Ukraine, it would face unspecified consequences that would put the “security of the whole European continent” at risk.
The Americans and Russians say that after this week, they will discuss whether to keep talking.
That is, unless Mr. Putin decides to argue that Washington and its allies do not take Russia’s demands seriously — and chooses to use this week as a pretext to go to war.
Anton Troianovski reported from Bratislava. Reporting was contributed by Monika Pronczuk in Brussels and Michael Crowley in Washington.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/world/europe/nato-russia-talks-ukraine-brussels.html
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