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Nothing concrete yet on potential joint statement after Putin-Biden summit, says diplomat

Putin-Biden meeting in Geneva to become the first between two presidents

MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Russia is eyeing "many ideas" in the context of the forthcoming Putin-Biden summit, however, it is too early to talk anything concrete, for example, a possible joint statement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.

"I’m not ready to comment on the content of the planned summit. There are many ideas, and we are working on all of them. So far, it is too early to talk about anything concrete," he emphasized when asked about a possible joint statement on the outcome of the Russian-US summit.

Earlier, the Kremlin and the White House announced that the much-awaited summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden would take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Biden since the 46th US president took office. It will also be the first Russian-US summit since July 2018, when Putin met with then US President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland.

According to the Kremlin, the heads of state will discuss the conditions and prospects for further fostering Russian-US relations, strategic stability matters as well as pressing issues on the international agenda, which include cooperation in fighting the pandemic and regulating regional conflicts. On May 30, Biden stated that he plans to discuss the topic of human rights during the summit.