The White House announced on Monday that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Russia’s Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev met in Switzerland. “This is an important step in the preparations for the US-Russian summit,” the US administration said.
According to the White House, Sullivan and Patrushev discussed a wide range of issues at the Geneva meeting, with a particular focus on strategic stability. “This meeting was an important step in preparing for the planned US-Russian summit, whose date and place will be announced at a later time,” the statement said. Both sides believed that mutually acceptable solutions could be found in many areas,” the White House said, adding that both sides agreed that normalization of US-Russian relations is in the interests of both countries.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, second from rightStephanie Reynolds / PAP
Geneva, a possible venue for Biden’s meeting with Putin
The Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger wrote on Monday that US and Russian Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will meet in Switzerland in June, and that part of the US mission has already arrived in Geneva for this purpose. The newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying that an “unusual cargo plane” landed at Geneva airport on Sunday. Last week, the Russian daily Kommersant ranked Geneva as the most likely place to meet Biden and Putin.
The Swiss foreign ministry declined to comment on the Tages-Anzeiger information, but a ministry spokeswoman confirmed that Switzerland would be ready to provide its “services when they are useful and desirable.”
Main image source: Stephanie Reynolds / PAP
