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No reasonable alternative to dialogue with Russia, German foreign minister says

Heiko Maas welcomed the recent US offer to hold a summit with Russia

BERLIN, April 27. /TASS/. The desire to hold a dialogue with Russia could help iron out international conflicts, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told at online event of the German Atlantic Society.

The top diplomat welcomed the recent US offer to hold a summit with Russia. "This is a path that we in the EU are taking. I believe there is no reasonable alternative to this," Maas said. According to him, a direct dialogue between Moscow and Washington would be "very useful" not only for bilateral Russian-US ties. "This would be a positive event" for the entire world in general, he stressed.

Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden was scheduled for this summer, but said neither the exact date nor the country hosting the event were agreed on.

On April 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden had a phone conversation. The White House announced that Biden had put forward the idea of holding the summit "in a third country in the coming months." Later, Biden specified that he had offered his Russian counterpart to meet this summer in Europe.