US President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a video meeting on December 7 local time. The two sides focused on regional issues such as US-Russian bilateral relations, the situation in Ukraine, and the Iranian nuclear issue.
This is the second meeting since the two sides met face-to-face in Geneva in June this year.
The meeting between the two lasted about 2 hours that day.
After the meeting, the White House issued a statement stating that Biden stated that the United States and its European allies are “deeply concerned” about Russia’s strengthening of military deployment in the Russian-Ukrainian border area; Strong" economic sanctions and other response measures.
Biden reiterated that the United States supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and called on Russia and Ukraine to ease tensions and resume a diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian issue.
The White House statement said that Biden and Putin also discussed the US-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue that was launched in Geneva, Switzerland in July this year, and the progress of the dialogue between the two sides in response to ransomware attacks, and discussed the two countries’ issues on regional affairs such as the Iranian nuclear issue. The cooperation was communicated.
The Kremlin Press Service issued a statement stating that the talks between the two sides were "frank and pragmatic."
"The leaders of the two countries stated that taking into account the special responsibility of maintaining international security and stability, Russia and the United States will continue dialogue and necessary contacts."
The Kremlin stated that Putin stated that Russia should not be blamed for the escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine, because NATO is trying to conquer Ukrainian territory and continues to expand its military power near the Russian border.
Russia hopes to obtain reliable legal guarantees to prevent NATO from further eastward expansion and the deployment of offensive weapon systems in Russia’s neighboring countries.
Putin also stated that the current unsatisfactory bilateral cooperation between Russia and the United States is mainly manifested in the difficulties in the work of the diplomatic missions of the two countries, and all of this is caused by the United States alone.
Russia proposes to lift restrictions on the normal operation of diplomatic missions, believing that this will also help normalize other aspects of bilateral relations.
(Producing Li Jiali)
Editor in charge: [Ji Xiang]