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No working meals planned during Putin-Biden summit in Geneva, says senior US official

The meeting may last for about four or five hours
Villa La Grange Sergei Bobylev/TASS
Villa La Grange
© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

WASHINGTON, June 15. /TASS/. There are no working meals planned during the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva, a senior US official told reporters on Tuesday on board Biden’s plane en route from Brussels to Geneva.

"[There will be] no breaking of bread," the official said, quoted by the White House press pool.

According to the US official, the meeting may last for about four or five hours. Putin and Biden will begin the talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken present, along with the translators. Before this meeting, reporters will be allowed to visit briefly for a pool spray.

After that, the talks will be held in an expanded format, "presidents plus five," the press pool stated, adding that the participants are not known yet and that the White House will announce them tomorrow. No reporters will be allowed for this part of this talks.

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. 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. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Biden since the 46th US president took office.