The White House confirmed that US-Russian bilateral talks would be held on January 10. Their focus will be on security issues and the military activity of the Russian Federation near Ukraine. Also, the administration of President Joe Biden announced that Moscow would hold talks with NATO (January 12) and European countries involving Washington (January 13).
According to Reuters, the Kremlin confirmed the timetable for three rounds of talks. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov expressed the hope that these meetings would mark the beginning of a process that would provide Moscow with new security guarantees from the West. He added that the Russia-NATO talks would be held in Brussels, and the round scheduled for January 13 would be joined by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that includes the United States, its allies in the North Atlantic Alliance, Ukraine, and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
New Biden-Putin meeting
Biden evaded a clear answer to the question of whether his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would be held on January 10. He said "We’ll see," according to Reuters.
Context. Recall: Russia denies that it is planning a new invasion of Ukraine. However, it states that it can take such action if its security requirements are not met. Moscow demands guarantees that NATO will not expand further to the east and that offensive weapons will not be deployed on the territory of Ukraine or neighboring countries.
In turn, the White House threatened Russia with sanctions on condition of a new attack on Ukraine and also stressed that it could not promise that the country would not become a NATO member.
On Monday, Biden signed a defense budget for 2022 that, in particular, provides for $300 million in aid to Ukraine.
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