Geneva: The United States and Russia held fresh talks in Geneva on Wednesday which aimed at stabilizing barbed relationships between them.
Talks are a continuation of strategic dialogue which began last month in Swiss City with the first summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden.
The meeting took place behind the closed door and without the media present.
The discussion, led by the Deputy Secretary of the US State Wendy Sherman and the Russian representative of the Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, is expected to last most of the day.
The US mission in Geneva posted two pictures of Sherman Ryabkov’s meeting.
They both stood indoors in front of their respective flags and wore facial masks.
In one image, they touched the elbow.
Moscow and Washington have strong hopes, without spectacular results expected from the meeting – the same as the presidential summit June 16.
Talks will include the problem of controlling barbed weapons.
Bonnie Jenkins, a week ago was confirmed as a state secretary for weapons control and international security affairs, was part of the US delegation.
“Through this dialogue, we strive to lay the foundation for future weapons controlling and risk reduction measures,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when announcing Geneva talks Wednesday.
Ryabkov told Russian news agencies on Tuesday that talks would allow Moscow to “understand how serious our US colleagues’ mindset in terms of building concentrating and energetic dialogues in strategic stability”.
But he added: “I will not raise the hope bar.” Diplomacy came in the midst of tension in several fronts between the two countries, with Washington blaming Moscow for Cyberattacks waves, where Russia denied responsibility.
Biden on Tuesday accused Putin looking to disrupt the election of the US Congress by spreading “wrong information”.
“This is a pure violation of our sovereignty,” he said.
Putin has a “real problem: he sits on the economy that has nuclear weapons and nothing else,” Biden added.
“He knew he was in real trouble, which made him more dangerous.” Even so, Putin has welcomed Biden’s efforts to bring more predictability to the relationship between the two global Powhouses.
During their Geneva summit last month, two presidents, who held the largest nuclear warehouse in the world, shaking hands, talking for more than three hours, and emphasizing the importance of dialogue.
Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior research partner at the American Study Center in the Moscow State Institute of International Elite University, said that the announcement of each work group will rewards where negotiations are heading.
“What we can get from this meeting is a general understanding of what is the concern of each party; how they interact,” he told reporters in Geneva through the video-link.
“If we hear …
the consultation goes well, we might guess that at least the parties feel each other as ready for business.” It seems you can have a business with Biden administration.
If they agree to something, at least they will try to follow up.
“Baklitskiy said the announcement when the next meeting might be able to make a” big difference “, given the US domestic election schedule.