Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov highlighted his meeting with Anthony Blinken in Geneva on the Ukraine crisis, saying at the beginning of his conversation with his US counterpart that he did not expect any decisive developments during the current crisis. .
Sitting down, Anthony Blinken vowed that the response from Washington and its allies would be “solid, swift and fierce” in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. He assured, however, that the United States would continue to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
The meeting of the two men takes place on the shores of Lake Lehman, is not expected to last more than two hours and then the two foreign ministers will make separate statements to the press.
Sergei Lavrov and Anthony Blinken, who are well known, shook hands at 11.00 local time (12.00 Greek time) before starting their talks.
The meeting is the latest in a diplomatic choreography based on Washington’s suspicions that Moscow intends to invade Ukraine, which the Kremlin denies, while gathering a force of 100,000 troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Less than 20 minutes before the start of the meeting, Russia announced that its demands included the withdrawal of foreign NATO troops from Romania and Bulgaria, members of the Atlantic Alliance, as part of a treaty seeking to secede from the Western powers in exchange for the de-escalation of the Ukrainian crisis.
Anthony Blinken arrived in Geneva on a brief tour of Kiev to reassure the Ukrainian leadership of Western support, and Berlin, where he, along with Germany, France and the United Kingdom, gave assurances of the alliance bloc.
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