The US and Russian leaders will discuss ways to improve relations between the two countries, which are “at the lowest level since the end of the Cold War.”
The meeting between the Presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, is scheduled for Wednesday, June 16, and will be held in Geneva.
Recent events have shed light on topics for the Russian and American leaders to discuss.
It should be noted that this is Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin since the inauguration of the first president of the United States.
The meeting is of historic importance, since relations between Moscow and Washington will be discussed directly by the top leadership of the two countries.
It is expected that the head of the Russian state, during a meeting with his American counterpart, will express concern about the NATO exercises held recently near the western and southern borders of Russia.
Earlier in Moscow it was reported that NATO’s military activity near the western borders of Russia has increased by 2-3 times.
The situation around the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is one of the topics that Biden, in turn, will touch upon. In the United States, they are concerned about the situation “with democracy and human rights” amid the arrest of Navalny on corruption charges after returning from Germany, where he was receiving treatment after being poisoned.
Putin will express concern to a colleague about sanctions against Russia and interference in the internal affairs of Moscow.
The parties will also discuss the problem of strategic stability.
It is expected that some issues will be discussed related to the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on Measures to Further Reduce and Limit Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), as well as the deployment of medium-range nuclear weapons.
Along with the situation in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iran and Belarus, over which there are differences between the United States and Russia, the agenda of the meeting is likely to include the topic of an arms race in space.
The leaders of the two countries are expected to present their vision on the development of cooperation between Russia and the United States.
At the meeting, which will be followed by the entire world community, the parties will discuss relations that, according to the Russian authorities, are “cooler than during the Cold War.”
Meanwhile, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted earlier, Moscow does not expect fateful decisions from the meeting.
The minister expressed the hope that the American side will take into account the interests, position of Russia and the “red lines” for this country.
Normalization of Russian-American relations is possible only if the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs are observed, Lavrov added.