The Abu Dahbi process – the first trilateral negotiations on ending the NATO-Russia Ukrainian War have signaled progress towards that goal, but the progress should n ot be overstated. The first success is the humanization of the meetings themselves. Official reports from the parties speak of productive, constructive, and some progress. The second success is the noted ‘progress’, meaning a nearing of the parties’ positions on one or more issue. All this amounts to modest movement towards an end to the war that should neither be overstated nor understated.
The Abu Dhabi atmospherics have moved beyond the cold, antagonistic character of many previous meetings and the general hatred characteristic of Russian-Ukrainian relations and signals from the countries’ respective leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin and especially Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelenskiy. Beyond the success of conveing the first direct trilateral meetings, incuding direct Russian-Ukrainian talks to dicuss all the issues surrounding the war, the atmospherics were described by unidentified US officials as ‘very good’; there was mutual respect and no yelling. One exclaimed there was a moment when they all looked like friends, sparking a “feeling of hope” in the official. Another US officials said things went as good as one could expect. Additionaly, it was reported that the sides lunched together in a good atmosphere. All sides reported very constructive, productive meetings. The importance of this for the general situation was underscored when after the Abu Dahbi 1 in January, Putin agreed to an ‘energy truce’—an agreement that both sides would refrain from targeting energy infrastructure for a week – and Russian negotiators apologized to their Ukrainian counterparts for attacks on Odessa and a passenger train, saying the troops who undertook them had still not rteceived the order to cease fire. ………………….
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