Now the relations between the countries are close to critical, the assistant to the Russian president noted.
According to TASS, aide to the President of the Russian Federation Yuri Ushakov said that the situation in relations between Russia and the United States is close to critical, and the meeting of the presidents of the two countries, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva, should help them reach an understanding on some issues.
“During it (the meeting), if not an agreement, then an understanding between the presidents will be reached. Of course, this will affect the further development of Russian-American relations, which are now at an impasse, the situation is close to critical, and something in this context, of course, will need to be done”, – the presidential aide told the reporters.
The presidents will discuss practically all topics of concern to both Moscow and Washington, including unresolved bilateral issues, strategic stability and regional conflicts. Among these topics – “the state and prospects of the development of Russian-American relations, the main issues of strategic stability, issues of information security, issues of combating cybercrime”.
“Of course, specific unresolved issues of bilateral relations will also be discussed”, – Ushakov said.
In addition, they will discuss “issues of economic cooperation, climate, the Arctic and counteraction to coronavirus”. The presidential aide clarified that these topics are supposed to be discussed at the summit in approximately this order, although the presidents “can completely replay the regulations and start discussing some other issue”.
“For dessert, regional problems are left: the Middle East, Syria, Libya, the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, settlement in Afghanistan, on the Korean Peninsula, in Nagorno-Karabakh. And, obviously, Ukraine. And, maybe, some other issues, the presidents can at their discretion touch on any topic, no one can be denied this right, the discussion will also touch upon those issues that have not been agreed in advance and have not been identified on the agenda”, – Ushakov said.
He separately stressed that the Russian delegation included the special presidential envoy for the Syrian settlement Alexander Lavrentyev and the deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Kozak.
“That is, we can conclude that Ukraine and Syria will be among the issues that the presidents will touch upon”, – Ushakov said.
According to Ushakov, the parties carried out “thorough work” in preparing the agenda for the summit.
“Naturally, there were some disagreements, inconsistencies, but then we quickly reached a common understanding of the format and the topics to be discussed. This is the simplest thing – to agree on topics and agree on the composition of who will be present. Everything else is much more complicated, the content of the negotiations is very complicated”, – the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.