F.P. Report
GENEVA: Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman led a U.S. interagency delegation from the National Security Council, Department of State, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, and Department of Energy to Geneva on Wednesday, to participate in the U.S.-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov led the Russian delegation.
In the U.S.-Russia Presidential Joint Statement on Strategic Stability on June 16, 2021, President Biden committed to embarking on an integrated Strategic Stability Dialogue with the Russian Federation that would be “deliberate and robust.” We remain committed, even in times of tension, to ensuring predictability and reducing the risk of armed conflict and threat of nuclear war.
Today’s meeting in Geneva was the beginning of this dialogue with the R-ussian Federation. The U.S. delegation discussed U.S. policy priorities and the current security environment, national perceptions of threats to strategic stability, prospects for new nu-clear arms control, and the format for future Strategic Stability Dialogue se-ssions. The discussions in Geneva were professional and substantive. The two delegations agreed to meet again in a plenary session at the end of September, and to hold informal consultations in the interim, with the aim of determining topics for expert working gro-ups at the second plenary.
Senior officials from Departments of State and Defense will travel to Brussels, Belgium on July 29 to brief Allies at NATO headquarters.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that at the talks there was a “comprehensive discussion of the countries’ approaches” to maintaining strategic stability, the prospects for arms control and measures to reduce risks. In addition, they touched upon “various aspects of the further development of interaction on this topic,” the ministry’s website says.
