Department of State: Preparations for a Dialogue with Russia on a Strategic Stability Underway

Ned Price spoke about new steps in the work on the problems discussed at the Geneva summit At the Geneva summit, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin were able to discuss a range of priority issues, with both sides describing the meeting as practical, constructive and productive, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday. When asked about the outcome of the recent summit in Geneva during a telephone briefing for reporters, Price stressed President Biden's conviction that there is no alternative to face-to-face meetings with foreign leaders as a form of diplomatic communication. Recalling that the agenda of the Biden-Putin summit included critical strategic issues, Price noted, however, that "it will take some time" to find out whether real results will appear in "areas of potential cooperation". "I believe you've heard from the President himself that this meeting was about testing the assumption that we can achieve more stable, more predictable relationships," Price said. He also recalled that, according to President Biden, this testing could take from six to twelve months. "As instructed by President Biden, we are preparing a dialogue with Russia on the issue of strategic stability. We are in the process of determining the time of the first meeting. The American delegation will be led by a senior State Department official, and we plan to discuss the next steps - both nuclear arms control and other strategic issues. We are guided by the principle ...that a nuclear war cannot be victorious and cannot be unleashed - even in times of tension ...The United States and Russia can reduce the risk of armed conflict and the threat of nuclear war. This is precisely the principle that guided the discussion on strategic stability in the context of this summit. As you know, we regularly hold diplomatic meetings with the Russian leadership, and we welcome more open channels of communication between our governments," the spokesperson for the foreign department said. He also clarified that the problems that were discussed at the summit remain subjects of discussion between the United States and Russia, be it Ukraine, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, or "more complete staffing of our embassies."