PRAGUE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2021) The summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Joe Biden in Geneva and the assessment they gave to the talks, made a positive impression and gave some hope for improving the international climate, former Slovak Prime Minister Jan Carnogursky, who was in office from 1991-1992, told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"On the eve of the summit of the Presidents of Russia and the United States, most forecasts about its future results were very pessimistic. There have been too many recriminations on both sides lately. Therefore, the assessment of the negotiations and their atmosphere given by both presidents at subsequent press conferences was a pleasant surprise. This raises certain hopes for improving the international climate," Carnogursky said.
According to the politician, it is vital that Putin and Biden agreed on a set of issues � in particular, the common ground on the importance of the Minsk agreement for the resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Besides, the leaders also agreed on the need to jointly prevent tension in the Arctic as a potential area of rivalry between the two leading powers.
"The fact that several issues raised at the talks, according to the statements of both presidents, will be discussed at the level of the relevant ministries, indicates the interest in their solution. I mean, for example, the topics of strategic and cybersecurity," Carnogursky noted.
He also compared the Putin-Biden summit with the previous one, held in 2018 in Helsinki between the Russian President and former US President Donald Trump.
"Trump had a lot of impulsiveness, improvisation. Behind his words, there was no confidence that the preliminary agreements raised at the meeting would be continued in practice, which in many respects happened. I would like to believe that Biden is a more serious politician in this sense, who will try to implement at least part of the intentions that were voiced in Geneva. It is no accident that the American president stressed that the cold war is not in the interests of either the United States or Russia," Carnogursky explained.
As for mutual visits, which, according to Putin, have not been discussed at the summit, Carnogursky said that it would come to this matter in case the bilateral negotiations on the issues continue successfully.
"We need a mutual interest in the development of cooperation, in the positive results of the negotiations. Today, it was announced by both presidents. I think the whole world hopes for success, " the Slovak politician concluded.
On Wednesday, the world attentively followed the face-to-face meeting between Putin and Biden in the Swiss city of Geneva, which was held under strict COVID-19 measures and lasted 4.5 hours. After the summit, the presidents held separate press conferences, where they both assessed the meeting as productive.
