The White House and the Kremlin are working to hold a summit next month between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Switzerland, officials revealed on Monday.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with his Russian counterpart in Geneva this week to finalize details, according to an official familiar with the preliminary planning.
Currently, Geneva is expected to be the choice for Biden's first face-to-face meeting with Putin as president, according to a second official.
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council declined to comment on the summit logistics.
Nevertheless, the NSC stated that this week’s meeting between Sullivan and Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev “was an important step in the preparation for a planned U.S.-Russia summit” and deemed the discussions “constructive” despite “outstanding differences.”
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov affirmed on Sunday that the summit is of great importance to overcome the current crisis in relations between Moscow and Washington.
Biden has previously stressed that he wanted to meet Putin despite Russia’s build-up of military forces near Ukraine.
The president said: “I’m confident we’ll be able to do it. We don’t have any specific time or place. That’s being worked on.”
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