Ash Carter: Cooperation with Russia in Syria will not create a military partnership
The agreements made between the US and Russia with regard to Syria does not signal the beginning of a deepening of their military partnership. This was said by the US Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter.
On the 26th of July, AFP reported Carter as saying that discussions on military cooperation in Syria are only being carried out to “coerce Russians to make the right steps”, specifically to support a political solution to the conflict in Syria.
However, according to Carter, Russia is “still very far from this”. Negotiations with them should clarify “whether Russians are able to act properly in Syria”. Carter has also said that Russia has to end its policies which promote the continuation of the Syrian war. According to experts, Carter’s statements are in response to concerns expressed in the US that military cooperation with Russia could harm the operational work of the US military.
The US Secretary of State, John Kerry,met with Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, in Laos on the 25th and the 26th of July to continue the Syrian discussions. A week earlier, Kerry traveled to Moscow where he first met with Russian President Vladimir Putin before having a 12-hour discussion with Lavrov.
The Washington Post reported that the negotiations concerned, among other things, the “enhanced exchange of information”, specifically the exchange of intelligence. According to the Director of the US National Intelligence, James Clapper, Russia could receive too much access to information about secret US operations as a result of this exchange.