WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th December, 2021) US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday are expected to discuss a broad range of security and strategic issues ahead of the scheduled series of talks on Ukraine.
"President Biden will speak with President Putin by telephone at the request of the Russian side," a senior US administration official told reporters on Wednesday. "The two presidents will discuss the upcoming dialogues with Russia on a range of security and strategic issues.�Those include bilateral talks through the Strategic Stability Dialogue, as well as the NATO-Russia Council, and the OSCE Permanent Council meeting, all of which will take place the week of January 10th."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Sputnik that the Biden-Putin talks will take place late in the evening on Thursday Moscow time.
The US administration official said it will take a high-level engagement to find a path toward de-escalation, so Biden will listen closely to what Putin has to say and share comments of his own.
However, the official said the United States continues to see a significant Russian troop presence near Ukraine but believes it is not entirely static. The United States will continue to communicate to Russia that it wants to see a reduction of the troop presence in the area, the official added.
The United States has contingency plans to reinforce its NATO allies should there be further escalation between Russia and Ukraine, the official said, adding that the United States is also ready to provide Ukraine with additional security assistance in the event of an escalation in the region.
The United States has had very good discussions with Ukraine recently about the short-term confidence building measures that Kiev proposed to Moscow, the official noted.
On December 17, Russia released proposals on security guarantees to NATO and the United States that seek to prevent the alliance's further expansion eastward and ban the deployment of US and Russian intermediate and short-range missiles within reach of each other's territory, among other items.
Negotiations on security guarantees between Moscow and Washington are scheduled for January 10, followed by a Russia-NATO Council meeting to discuss the issue on January 12, and the summit of Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe the following day.
Biden and Putin will not participate in the first round of negotiations in Geneva on January 10. However, the US delegation will consist of State and Defense Department officials, according to the White House.
