US, Russia will launch strategic stability dialogue, talks positive: Biden

US President Joe Biden holds a press conference after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16, 2021.

GENEVA: The US and Russia will launch a bilateral strategic stability dialogue aimed at reducing nuclear arsenal and making the world safe, US President Joe Biden has said.

Terming his four-hour long meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva as “good and positive,” Mr Biden stressed while adding that “a lot of business was done on this trip.” “I must tell you, the tone of the entire meeting, I guess it was a total of four hours, it was good. Positive,” he said in his solo press conference after talks with the Russian leader.

“There wasn’t any strident action taken, where we disagreed, I disagreed, I stated what it was. Where he disagreed, he stated, but it was not done in a hyperbolic atmosphere. There’s been too much of that going on,” Mr Biden said.

“Over this last week, I believe, I hope, the United States has shown the world that we are back standing with our allies, we rallied our fellow democracies to make concerted commitments to take on the biggest challenges our world faces, and now we’ve established a clear basis on how we intend to deal with Russia and the US-Russian relationship,” Mr Biden said.

The US leader stressed that the coming months would serve as a “test” on whether their discussion today would prove to bring the nations closer to progress. “That’s going to be the test. I am not sitting here saying because the president and I agreed that we would do these things that all of a sudden it’s going to work. I’m not saying that.”

“What I am saying is I think there’s a genuine prospect to significantly improve the relations between our two countries, without us giving up a single, solitary thing based on principle and our values,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden stressed that there were no “threats” during the June 16 summit with Mr Putin. “It was very, as we say, which will shock you coming from me, somewhat colloquial, and we talked about basic, basic fundamental things,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden also dispelled the impression that his Russian counterpart is looking for a new Cold War. “I pointed out to him we have significant cyber capability, and he knows it. He doesn’t know exactly what it is, but it’s significant. If, in fact, they violate these basic norms, we will respond. He knows, in the cyber world. Number two, I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War,” Mr Biden said.

“I don’t think he’s looking for a Cold War with the United States. I don’t think it’s, as I said to him, I said, ‘your generation and mine are about 10 years apart. This is not a Kumbaya moment as you used to say back in the ’60s in the United States, like let’s hug and love each other. But it’s clearly not in anybody’s interest, your country’s or mine, for us to be in a situation where it’s a new Cold War,'” he said.

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