The date of the video conference meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden has been tentatively approved and will be announced after agreement with the American side, Russian leader's aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Friday.
"The possibility of Putin's communication with Biden in the format of a video conference call is being worked out. We are working on video-conference communication with Biden, and it may take place in the next few days. We have a specific date and time for the video conference. But it is better to wait until all the parameters have been finally agreed upon with the US side, and then we will be able to announce it officially. This meeting in the form of a video conference is being prepared quite actively," Ushakov noted.
Geneva Summit and the situation in the world
"The agenda is obvious. This will be an important contact as a follow-up to the Geneva talks, and it will touch on progress in the implementation of the Geneva agreements," said an aide to the Russian head of state. - "They will talk about bilateral affairs, topical issues of the international agenda, including Afghanistan, Iran, the internal Ukrainian crisis, Libya; Syria may be touched upon as the conversation goes." Ushakov also said the leaders will discuss "the progress of the dialogue on strategic stability." "The implementation of our idea of holding a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council will probably be touched upon," he added.
Guarantees of NATO Non-Extension
Another topic of the negotiations will be the issues concerning the North Atlantic Alliance. We are talking about legal arrangements to rule out further NATO expansion to the east. "I think the Russian President will discuss this during his upcoming contact with President Biden," Ushakov said, recalling that Putin spoke about the need for guarantees in this area at the Russian Foreign Ministry board and during a meeting with foreign ambassadors.
"This is our proposal on the need to work together with our colleagues, with the leading countries, to reach appropriate legal agreements that would rule out any further NATO advancement eastward and the deployment of weapons systems threatening us directly on the territory of neighboring Russian states, including Ukraine," the Russian leader's aide said.
According to him, Moscow urgently needs guarantees about the alliance's nonexpansion to the east. "This issue is 'bearded.' Both the Soviet Union and Russia were given verbal assurances that NATO's military structures would not move eastward, but it turned out that these verbal assurances were worthless, although a certain record of these statements was made, there are records of relevant conversations," described the current situation, the Kremlin representative characterized.
Given the current tense situation, there is an urgent need to provide us with the appropriate guarantees, and we cannot go on like this," he stressed. - "It's difficult to say what form this document will take, the most important thing is that these guarantees must be written down in writing".
Other topics of the meeting
Ushakov did not rule out that the US and Russian presidents might also discuss the situation on the oil market. "I don't know, maybe they will [discuss the situation on the oil market], there are a lot of issues, an appropriate memo is being prepared, but there are also other topics, there and the pandemic, the fight against climate change," he listed.
"The main thing is that not only we, but hopefully our American colleagues understand how important and necessary this contact is," he added.
"We are working through this contact with Olympic serenity, we are not rushing the Americans, when it is convenient for them, we are ready to have it. And now we are close to agreeing on a time that is convenient for both sides," Ushakov concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS