Kremlin Releases Date of Dec. 7 for Putin-Biden Video Summit

Dec. 4, 2021 (EIRNS)—In announcing that a date for the video meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden will soon be released, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Dec. 3 some of the key issues. The date has since been given as Tuesday, Dec. 7.

“We have a concrete date and time for this video conference. But it is better to wait until all its parameters are agreed with the U.S. side and then we will be able to announce it officially,” said Ushakov.

“The agenda is obvious. It will be an important contact as a follow-up to the Geneva talks. The progress in the implementation of the Geneva agreements will be touched upon. They will be talking about bilateral affairs, pressing international issues, including Afghanistan, Iran, the intra-Ukrainian crisis, and Libya. Syria may be touched upon, if the conversation goes that way.”

Also to be discussed is “progress in the dialogue on strategic stability” and the “implementation of our idea to hold a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council,” TASS quoted Ushakov as saying.

On President Putin’s call for legal accords on excluding NATO’s further eastward enlargement, Ushakov said:

“I think that the Russian President will discuss this issue in the course of his upcoming contact with President Biden. This is our proposal on the need to hold joint work with colleagues, with leading countries on reaching corresponding legal accords that would rule out any further eastward expansion by NATO and the deployment of weapon systems that directly threaten us on the territory of states bordering on Russia, including Ukraine.”

Ushakov affirmed that NATO’s expansion has been an old issue, that goes back to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. “Both the Soviet Union and Russia were given verbal assurances that NATO’s military structures would not advance eastward. However, it turned out that those verbal assurances were worthless, although those statements were documented somehow, and there are records of the corresponding conversations.” Therefore, he said, it is “an urgent need for us to be provided with appropriate guarantees, as it cannot go on like this. The main thing is that not only do we, but hopefully our American counterparts as well, realize how crucial and necessary this contact is.”