Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with his American counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday evening, December 7. This was announced by the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
A Kremlin spokesman noted that the talks will be held in a secure video link. The presidents themselves will determine the time required for the conversation, he said.
The White House announced that Biden plans to highlight concerns about Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine, as well as highlight the US commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also said that Biden would tell Putin that Washington is in the mood for a stable relationship with Moscow. “I think that when they speak, the president will set out our serious attitude towards greater predictability and stability in relations,” he said.
The Kremlin also spoke about possible points of the conversation.
“Naturally, there will be around Ukraine what for us is provocative actions of NATO armed forces near our borders,” Peskov said. He added that this cannot leave Moscow indifferent and causes concern, as well as the need to take adequate measures.
In turn, the aide to the Russian President Yuri Ushakov indicated that in addition to Ukraine, Putin and Biden will discuss, in particular, the situation in Afghanistan, may touch upon the topics of Iran, Libya and Syria, and also talk about the state of bilateral relations, which is currently unsatisfactory. In addition, he added, Putin and Biden are likely to touch upon the implementation of the agreements they reached during their previous meeting in Geneva. According to the assistant to the Russian leader, in general, the presidents have many issues on the agenda, including those related to the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
On the eve of the summit talks, the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of Russia and the United States, Sergei Lavrov and Anthony Blinken, held their meeting. On the sidelines of the meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers Council, they discussed the situation with the work of the Russian and US embassies, as well as the normalization of the crisis in the south-east of Ukraine and the process of resuming the Iranian nuclear deal.
“The Russian side emphasized the desire to establish a serious, comprehensive dialogue in accordance with the agreements of the presidents reached during the June summit in Geneva,” they noted after the meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Putin and Biden met in person on June 16 in Geneva at the Villa La Grange. The politicians talked for three and a half hours; both sides called the summit productive. Nevertheless, Putin also mentioned the regressions that are occurring in relations between Moscow and Washington, despite the direct dialogue. The President described them with the words “one step forward – two steps back.”
On November 10, Kommersant, citing sources familiar with the negotiations between Moscow and Washington, said that Putin and Biden could meet in person in early 2022. At the same time, the interlocutor of the publication precisely named the date of the video-conference call of the presidents.
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