President Joe Biden told reporters on May 4 he hoped to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his planned visit to Europe in June to participate in the NATO and G7 summits. “That is my hope and expectation. We’re working on it,” Biden said, without giving any details.
In an interview with Financial Times, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of a Biden-Putin summit, “I think it would be beneficial also for the two Presidents to be able to speak directly, face to face,” he said, naming the strategic stability realm among areas where progress can be made. “There are also areas where it’s in our mutual interest to cooperate. We’ve already seen one of them. That was the extension of the New START Treaty,” Blinken said. “There are other areas in the so-called strategic stability realm, where, maybe, progress can be made.”
