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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser on international affairs, Yuri Ushakov, said today that the agenda of the summit that the head of the Kremlin will hold tomorrow in Geneva with U.S. President Joe Biden has been agreed upon.
“Practically all parameters of the meeting have been agreed upon. The agenda of the summit has already been agreed. Even the order in which the issues will be addressed by the leaders has been discussed in advance,” Ushakov said, quoted by Russian agencies.
According to Putin’s adviser, the only thing that remains to be agreed upon “concerns the final document or documents of the summit.”
“Our colleagues from the Foreign Ministry and the State Department are holding negotiations on it. There is still time, but not much,” said Ushakov, who will be part of the Russian delegation to the Geneva summit.
The agenda of the summit, he added, includes “practically all issues of concern to us and the American side.”
Among them, he mentioned the state and prospects for the development of Russian-American relations, key problems of strategic stability and cyber security, as well as the fight against cybercrime.
Issues of economic cooperation, climate, the situation in the Arctic and the fight against the coronavirus will also be addressed.
Ushakov said the presidents will discuss these topics roughly in that order, although “they may modify it and address other issues.”
“For ‘dessert’ there are regional problems: the Middle East, Syria, Libya, the situation around the Iranian nuclear program, the settlement in Afghanistan, on the Korean peninsula, in Nagorno-Karabakh. And, obviously, Ukraine,” he added.
The Russian delegation accompanying Putin to his first summit with Biden will include, in addition to Ushakov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Riabkov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov.
Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of the Russian Presidential Administration, and Alexander Lavrentiev, Putin’s special envoy for the settlement of the Syrian conflict, have been invited to discuss some regional issues.
Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, who was recalled by Moscow for consultations after Biden in mid-March answered in the affirmative to a journalist’s question on whether he considered Putin a murderer, will also participate in the summit.
Ushakov indicated that the Geneva summit will be held in two formats: one, broad, and the other, narrow.
Asked whether the Russian and American leaders will hold a conversation alone, Putin’s aide replied, “I don’t know, it will be as the presidents decide. It depends on them.”
