Nato allies are resigned to the need to negotiate with Russia despite the impossibility of many of Moscow’s demands regarding the US-led alliance in Europe, as pressure mounts to find a diplomatic solution to rising military tension over Ukraine.
Western defence officials want to avoid an outright rejection of the Kremlin’s proposals in an attempt to find areas of mutual agreement and calm a situation in which more than 100,000 Russian troops have assembled on Kyiv’s border.
Russia laid out its “red lines” to Nato and the US last week, which included forthright demands for the western alliance to deny membership to Ukraine, seek consent from Moscow to deploy troops in former communist countries in Europe, and avoid military deployments or exercises close to Russia’s borders.
Western officials have in private rejected almost all of the demands as implausible, not credible, and in contradiction to post-cold war treaties guaranteeing sovereign states’ rights to choose their defense policies.
But they admit that closing the door on Moscow’s initial diplomatic offer could make the situation worse. They think the proposals are a chance for dialogue alongside threats of sanctions should Moscow take steps to endanger Ukraine.
“We need to solve the current tensions on the diplomatic level,” Germany’s new defence minister Christine Lambrecht said on Sunday on a visit to German troops stationed in Lithuania — troops that Russia would like to see removed. “We will discuss Russia’s proposals . . . But it cannot be that Russia dictates to Nato partners their posture, and that is something that we will make very clear.”