Foreign media reported that US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a video summit yesterday (7th) local time.
It has been about six months since the first summit since Biden took office in Switzerland last June.
Although the issue of Ukraine, where tensions have peaked due to the possibility of a Russian invasion, is a key issue in this meeting, the two countries have been engaged in a tense battle of nerves, including not shying away from a fierce battle of words before the meeting.
The US media reported that Russia may mobilize 175,000 troops early next year to attack Ukraine as Russia increases its deployment of troops to the border with Ukraine and the West protests.
According to Reuters, President Biden will warn that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could face the harshest economic sanctions ever.
Specifically, foreign media reports say that it included extreme measures to outclass Russia in global finance, such as removing Russia from the international payment network and blocking transactions with Russian banks.
President Biden is known to announce that the West, including the United States, will cooperate as much as possible to ensure Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.
Prior to the summit, President Biden held separate talks with the heads of western allies, including France, Germany, Britain and Italy, to put pressure on Russia.
On the other hand, Russia is also taking a hardline stance, stating in advance that it does not expect any breakthrough from this summit.
In addition, they say that the military build-up in the Ukrainian border region is purely defensive, and the attitude of the West, such as the military increase in Eastern Europe, is being questioned.
It is interpreted as the Russian side’s intention that Ukraine, which has shown a pro-Western move, should control its move to join NATO, a security alliance between the United States and Europe.
In this context, it is expected that Putin will demand NATO’s guarantee of a further east ban in order to prevent NATO’s expansion into the former Soviet bloc.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula by force in March 2014 and is subject to sanctions from the United States and the European Union.
In the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, clashes between pro-Russian separatist rebels and Ukrainian government forces are taking place.
Reuters said the meeting was aimed at preventing the US from a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the two leaders said that the talks were held in a situation where there was little room for compromise.
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