US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the war in Syria and Russian involvement in Ukraine in a telephone call ahead of Obama’s trip to the NATO summit starting Friday in Warsaw.
The summit is expected to ratchet up tensions with Moscow as the alliance discusses Russian aggression in Ukraine, as well as fortifying defences along NATO’s eastern flank and implementation of a missile defence system that Moscow has long opposed.
The US strengthened its defence cooperation with Georgia on Wednesday in a memorandum signed by Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry was to travel Thursday to Ukraine. The former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia both have aspirations to join NATO, saying they need to protect their borders from Moscow.
In their telephone talks Wednesday, Putin called on Obama to draw a clear line between the moderate Syrian rebels and extremist groups, the Kremlin said. Obama called for Putin to do more to pressure the Syrian regime, a Moscow ally, to abide by a cessation of hostilities agreement, the White House said.
Russia’s involvement in Ukraine is among the chief concerns at the NATO summit, and Obama urged Putin to halt a “significant uptick” in fighting in eastern Ukraine and to abide by the Minsk agreement, the White House said.
Meanwhile, NATO officials said its ambassadors will hold a new round of talks on July 13 with their Russian counterpart.
“Our practical cooperation with Russia remains suspended, but we are keeping channels for political dialogue open,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
The meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels with Russian Ambassador Alexander Grushko is to focus on the Ukraine crisis and the need to fully implement the Minsk peace deal for eastern Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.
Relations between NATO and Moscow have been at a post-Cold War low amid Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Both sides have since been flexing their military muscle in Eastern Europe, accusing each other of sabre-rattling and provocation.
Moscow is likely to be further irritated by a decision expected to be taken by NATO leaders at the Warsaw summit to deploy four battalions of some 1,000 troops each to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
A push for resuming high-level contacts with Moscow gained momentum last year after the downing of a Russian jet by NATO member Turkey. Many NATO countries were keen to avoid such incidents in the future.
The July 13 talks will touch on “military activities with a particular focus on transparency and risk reduction,” Stoltenberg said, as well as the security situation in Afghanistan.
NATO ambassadors last met their Russian counterpart in April, after a hiatus of almost two years. Stoltenberg said afterward that “profound” disagreements remained.
The alliance’s relationship with Russia will be a key topic at the summit, US ambassador to NATO Doug Lute told reporters, describing the alliance’s posture toward Moscow as a “balance between strength and dialogue.”
lse.co.uk
