By Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK | 28 February 2025 (IDN) — Finally, a respite after a decade long acrimonious relations that ruined diplomatic relations between the two nuclear powers — the United States and Russia. It is a widely accepted norm that mutually respectful and beneficial relations between nations is a sine qua non in diplomacy.
The bilateral meeting in Saudi Arabia on 18 February was the first in three years between US and Russian diplomats since the Maidan and Crimea crisis in 2014 exacerbated diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Despite gratuitous tantrums from Ukraine and EU that they were not invited for the meeting in Riyadh, the long overdue talks were the first step towards restoring and enhancing — currently almost nonexistent — bilateral relations, and preparing for possible negotiations for peace in Ukraine, and laying the groundwork for a Trump-Putin summit.
The top diplomats of Russia and the US met again in Istanbul on 27 February to resuscitate the operations of their respective embassies.
200 years of noteworthy diplomatic relations
Since diplomatic relations were established in 1809 between Imperial Russia and the United States, there has been a ‘love-hate’ relationship between the two countries.
Since the Second World War and even during the hostile Cold War era, the US and Russia engaged in many noteworthy projects beneficial to both nations. The leaders of both countries met at Summits, and agreed on a range of security, nuclear disarmament and economic issues – including cultural, sports, scientific, and educational exchanges.
Unparalleled bilateral collaboration
Since the advent of the Cold War in the 196’0s, an entire generation grew up under the shadow of imminent catastrophe, and at times like the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis, there were widespread fears that humanity could not survive.
Again, last year, we were on the verge of a nuclear war when President Putin updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine to read as: “An attack on Russia by a foreign nation that does not have weapons of mass destruction, but is backed by a nuclear power, should be considered a joint attack by both” -— almost a pre-emptive strike status.
The arms reduction discourse between the Americans and Soviets — one time superpowers now at loggerheads — formally began in 1963 when the two nations signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT), which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater or in the atmosphere.
Even during the hostile Cold War era, the US and the USSR (now Russia) engaged in many projects beneficial to both nations. The two countries participated in joint efforts for example: the Apollo-Soyuz project in space where the cold-war rivals met in orbit in 1975; the first joint US-Russian space shuttle mission in 1994; and in 1995, the US space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russian space station Mir in outer space forming the largest spacecraft ever in orbit.
Later, the two superpowers entered into several Strategic Nuclear Arms Control Agreements (too many to enumerate here), and they strived and markedly reduced their arsenal of approximately 70,300 nuclear warheads down to around 13,000 nukes.
These are epoch-making milestones by two adversarial superpowers — that proved the benefits of peaceful coexistence. Despite these stupendous achievements, the relations between the two nations have always been volatile.
Recently, addressing the Davos World Economic Forum, President Trump suggested denuclearization talks with Russia and China, and also cut defense spending — noble goals indeed.
NATO in Ukraine?
It is a blessing that President Trump believes previous US support of Ukraine’s bid to join the NATO military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.
But the root cause originated when the United States promised in 1991 that “NATO would not move one inch Eastward” but NATO reneged with deployment of troops and military equipment including missiles in Poland, Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania – that Kremlin to-date sees as a grave threat to Russia’s national security.
Diplomacy: Out of the frying pan into the fire
Historically, the US and Russia have been in a ‘love-hate’ relationship. The relations began to sour when the US and EU realized that President Putin — who came to power in 2000 — cannot be manipulated. Putin abhors orders, especially if the West’s demands are contrary to the best interests of Russia. The Western leaders totally ignored Putin’s often repeated proposition that “We do not want confrontation: We want to engage in dialogue but a dialogue that acknowledges the equality of both parties’ interests. Frustrated with Putin’s inflexible steadfastness, the West began to demonize him and developed Russophobia.
Ever since Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire, every US president depicted Russia as an imminent threat, and even today, the EU states spread hysteria that Putin will invade European countries. Trump has dismissed that as “nonsense”.
Diplomatic abyss between US, EU and Russia
During the last two decades, diplomatic relations between the US and Russia have been chaotic and expelled each other’s diplomats and confiscated diplomatic properties.
For example: In 2014, in the wake of Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia. Russia reciprocated with counter-sanctions, which the UN claims hurt Russia by $55 billion and the EU economy by $100 billion.
In 2016, the US expelled 35 Russian diplomats and seized two Russian diplomatic properties and in 2017, the US imposed sanctions on more than 38 Russian individuals and organizations.
Reciprocating, Russia ordered the US to cut 755 of its 1,200 diplomatic staff (located in their missions in Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok) and seized two diplomatic properties in Moscow. – an embassy warehouse and the embassy summer residence by the Moscow River.
In 2018, alleging that Russia poisoned the Skripals, the British Prime Minister Theresa May provoked an unprecedented ouster of 151 Russian diplomats from UK, US and EU that the Russians dutifully reciprocated – expelling an equal number of foreign diplomats that amount to the most dramatic diplomatic démarche since the Cold War.
Also, to-date, Russia faces over 20,000 sanctions by the US and Western countries, and various reports indicate that these have boomeranged on those who imposed sanctions. If the purpose of Western sanctions on Russia were to inflict hardship on Russia’s economy, cause regime change, and split Russia, then it has, thus far failed.
I don’t need to elaborate on the multi-billion dollar proxy war against Russia.
How on earth can any bilateral or diplomatic relations exist under such acrimonious and adversarial actions?
A Trump-Putin Summit: Détente or Déjà vu
Since he came to power in 2000, President Putin has held six Summits with US Presidents (from Clinton to Biden). Though all Summits were initially cordial, bilateral relations always turned cantankerous — and on a chaotic roller-coster ride.
Just recently, with the EU’s 16th round of sanctions against Russia, and Trump extending US sanctions on Russia by another year, and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pronouncements that ”the U.K. is ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal, …” are not recipes for peace but the right ingredients to ignite a nuclear war.
I wish the leaders of the two nuclear superpowers mend their differences and find ways to have civilized diplomatic relations for the sake of global security and peace because the current level of bellicose antagonism could easily trigger a nuclear war that could lead to mutual annihilation.
As Winston Churchill said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
The Ukrainian President, whom his enthusiasts see the reincarnation of Churchill, was apparently ignorant of Winston Churchill’s advice. In fact, the Trump-Zelensky meeting, which ended in fiery exchanges, has catapulted “Peace” on the rocks — for a while — or may never happen.
*Somar Wijayadasa who has written extensively on US-Russia relations is an international lawyer who was a delegate to the UN General Assembly for 15 years and was the Representative of UNAIDS at the United Nations from 1995 to 2000. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Russian President Putin (right) with US President Trump (left) on 16 July 2018 in Helsinki. CC BY 4.0
