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Putin-Biden meeting in Geneva

Putin, Biden to discuss issue of diplomatic property, says Kremlin

Dmitry Peskov called the bilateral relationship between Russia and the US a cornerstone

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov Sergei Bobylev/TASS

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

GENEVA, June 16. /TASS/. The meeting of Russian and US presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva will focus on the issue of diplomatic property, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Channel One on Wednesday.

"The issue obviously cannot be ignored. The bilateral relationship is the cornerstone," he said when asked about the discussion of the diplomatic property issue during the Geneva summit.

It is necessary "to clear the debris" in the area of bilateral cooperation, Peskov noted. "Our diplomatic property, our employees unable to work, the lack of dialogue on such sensitive fields as tackling terrorism, information security and so on. <...> It is necessary to catch up with all this, it should be discussed in order to restart those processes, if a respective political will is stated today, of course," he emphasized.

The narrow and extended talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden will take place in Geneva, Switzerland. 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.

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