PRESS RELEASE

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Ischinger: We Are At Point Zero in U.S.-Russia Relations

Aug. 13, 2015 (EIRNS)—In an interview with the German Bundestag daily Das Parlament, Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference and a board member of the European Leadership Network, assesses the new arms race and the diplomatic freeze between NATO and Russia as worrisome. He calls for a resumption of East-West talks, particularly for defining common guidelines for military exercises, in order to ensure that accidents which can occur in the air at any moment, will not trigger conflicts. The present constellation is such, he says, that if anyone just pressed the wrong button, there would be an "uncontrollable situation."

The main problem, he says, is that Russia wants to be seen at eye-level with the United States, which is what drives the developments on the Russian side, but this implies that Ukraine would be given a minor status, which the West cannot accept. Eastern Europe also justifedly wants close relations with NATO, because it feels threatened by Russia, he says, and the West has to take these interests seriously and cannot simply adopt Moscow’s view on that. Nevertheless, in spite of all existing differences, the West and Russia have to talk, because relations are down to zero now.