The US and Russia should sit down together and have a frank talk

by Jose Rizal M. Reyes / poet-philosopher, Philippines / July 25, 2016

“ Nato must prepare for ‘overnight Russian invasion of Poland’ and the US must ship more missiles to the region, say experts ”
— news headline, Daily Mail

Russia has already enough lands. They are more interested in making friends with Europe (and with the West in general) of which they consider themselves to be a part. Russia is Eurasian geographically; but racially and culturally they don’t see themselves as Asians but as Europeans. Even Henry Kissinger perceives that the Russians want to be a part of Europe and, like me, he isn’t happy with the deteriorating relation between Russia and the West.

US-Russian relation became frosty during the administration of Pres. Barack Obama (left) due to the Syrian civil war and the Ukraine crisis, among other thorny issues. Pres. Vladimir Putin (right) is hard put how to reach out to the West.

If the US is willing to make friends with Russia, I believe the Russians would be willing to discuss practically everything — including arms control, border arrangement, trade and commerce, civil wars and insurgencies, territorial disputes, terrorism, everything. If the US offers Russia a deal fair enough and reasonable enough, I have no doubt Russia wouldn’t play hard-to-get or hard-to-sign.

US president Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signing SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna.

By isolating Russia, the US is driving Russia into the happy arms of China, giving the latter more confidence in undertaking its campaign of territorial grabbing in the Southeast Asian Sea and thereabout. This is very, very dangerous. In case World War III breaks out, nothing is more horrible than for the United States and the Russian Federation — the two most powerful countries in the world, militarily speaking — to be on the opposite sides, hurling nuclear weapons against each other. This must be prevented at all cost from ever happening if we care enough for the survival of mankind.

US president Ronald Reagan and the last Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev together with their wives at Camp David. Gorbachev spoke to the West about “our common European home”.

There is a view expressed by some quarter that the US is unwilling to share power with Russia. Apparently, the US is wary that if Russia and the West become cordial to each other, the Russians might exert influence beyond what is comfortable for the US. And yet the Russians, even during the Soviet days, proved to be quite reasonable and quite reliable partners in making agreements. That is why the two countries were able to successfully undertake the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks I (SALT I) and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II (SALT 2), among others.

Russia and the US were both formed and founded upon the cultural matrix of Europe. They can better understand each other than they can understand China. They should sit down together and talk frankly about things and find a mutually acceptable arrangement for partnership and cooperation. Maybe if Donald Trump will win the US presidential election this coming November.