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Developments in Europe to be among key issues on agenda of Putin-Biden talks — diplomat

According to Sergey Ryabkov, Moscow hopes for the meeting to take place in the coming days but the exact date has not been approved as of yet

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. An alarming situation in Europe may be one of the key issues on the agenda of summit talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.

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"The current situation in Europe is very alarming," Ryabkov said speaking on air of Russia’s Channel One television broadcaster. "This situation will obviously be one of the key issues on the agenda of the summit talks."

The high-ranking diplomat also said that Moscow hoped for the meeting to take place in the coming days but the exact date had not been approved as of yet.

"We hope that the contact between two presidents will take place in the coming days," Ryabkov said. "I need to say right now that the date [for the summit talks] is unscheduled yet because there are some complications regarding the calendars of both presidents."

He also said that the meeting between Putin and Biden is extremely important both for Russia and the United States.

"Our problems are multiplying," he noted. "There is no progress in bilateral relations, which keep sliding down into a stage of an acute crisis."

Last month, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that no exact dates were set yet in regard to mooted online summit talks between the US and Russian presidents, but "everything was possible."

Putin and Biden held a summit in Geneva on June 16. It was their first face-to-face meeting as well as the first Russia-US summit since 2018. The event was proposed by the US side. Putin noted after the summit talks that Moscow and Washington could agree on the rules of behavior in the fields of strategic stability, cyber security and regional conflicts.

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Vladimir Putin United States Joseph Biden

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