Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba announced the launch of “network diplomacy” to “contain” Russia According to Kuleba, “shuttle diplomacy” should be replaced by network diplomacy, this will create “the effect of hundreds of mirrors for the Kremlin.” Kiev added a new element to the strategy to counter “Russian aggression”
Dmitry Kuleba
As part of a strategy to contain “aggressive actions” Russia needs to move from the “shuttle diplomacy” that operated during the Cold War to a network one. About this in the column for “New time” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
«Shuttle diplomacy» meant “diplomats traveling between the parties to the conflict,” but today the world has changed and it is necessary to act differently, writes Kuleba.
According to him, “network diplomacy” with the center in Kiev, which will be launched by Ukraine, involves intensive coordination of the positions of partners within the framework of the international coalition on “containment”; Russia, as well as close coordination with Kiev before and after contacts with Moscow.
“This creates the effect of a hundred mirrors for the Kremlin: Russia hears the same position from everywhere, agreed with Ukraine,” — considers Kuleba. According to him, three rounds of negotiations— USA and Russia, the Council of Russia— NATO and Russia with the OSCE,— which took place in mid-January in Europe, “showed network diplomacy in action.”
According to the minister, in recent weeks, the diplomatic system of Ukraine has been working “like a modern gadget”, simultaneously solving several problems, thanks to which Kiev managed to achieve a high level of international support.
In mid-January, Kuleba presented a plan to contain Russia, which “took a course for escalation.” It included three points: diplomatic efforts, the development of sanctions and the strengthening of defense cooperation between Western countries and Ukraine. Now, according to the minister, one more element has been added to it— assistance to maintain the economic and financial stability of Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly stated that it does not have aggressive plans with regard to the neighboring country. President Vladimir Putin, in turn, spoke about increased NATO activity near Russia's borders. According to the head of state, Moscow is in favor of resolving issues by politico-democratic means, but the country needs “clear, understandable, well-defined legal guarantees,” so Russia sent draft agreements in the field of security guarantees to the United States and NATO. Among the main points— the alliance's refusal to expand to the east, to include the former republics of the USSR and conduct military activities on the territory of Ukraine, as well as the non-deployment of the bloc's military forces on the territory of countries that were not members of the alliance in 1997.
p>
Representatives of NATO and the United States have repeatedly stated that one of the main demands of Russia— ban on NATO expansion— will not be met and the block will continue to implement the “open door” policy. At the same time, Washington noted that among the proposals of Russia there are both unacceptable and those that can be discussed.
Negotiations at which Russian proposals were discussed were held in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna. They ended without concrete results, Moscow demanded written answers from Brussels and Washington and received them on January 26. The Kremlin noted that “it’s not worth rushing to any conclusions,” all documents & mdash; President Vladimir Putin and it will take time to analyze them. The day before, during a telephone conversation with French leader Emmanuel Macron, Putin said that the Western countries in their responses did not take into account the requirements for the non-expansion of NATO and the non-deployment of weapons near Russia's borders.
Subscribe to RBC FB Get news faster all