U.S. ready to engage in diplomacy with Russia as soon as early January

The United States expects to begin negotiations with Russia on security guarantees in January, but they are not yet ready to specify the exact date, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

Sullivan stressed that he is not ready to tell a specific date or place of the negotiations). "I know that in Brussels and elsewhere, we are holding discussions on what our approach should be, whether it be within the framework of a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council either at the OSCE site, or within the framework of the ongoing Dialogue on Strategic Stability you mentioned," he said, answering a question about whether negotiations on security guarantees could be held in early January.

“We have these mechanisms. Dialogue on strategic stability for bilateral discussions between the United States and Russia. The Russia-NATO Council. And an even wider forum – the OSCE, which includes Ukraine, which is important," the head of the American diplomatic mission in Russia said.

As Ambassador Sullivan noted, U.S. President Joe Biden had previously initiated a number of formats of dialogue with the Russian side at the bilateral level.

“Thus, we have an architecture, formats for conducting these discussions. There are three of them: the Russia-NATO Council, the OSCE and our bilateral consultations with the Russian government. I hope and expect that – especially considering the situation in Donbass and on the Russian-Ukrainian border – there will be meetings in January. But today, December 23, I am not ready to tell you a date, or a place or places where they can take place” concluded the U.S. ambassador to Russia.