Sunday 24 / November / 2024
US president Joe Biden and Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed to a proposal by France's Emanuel Macron to hold a US-Russia summit on Ukraine, the French Elysee Palace and the White House said.
Both Biden and Putin, whom Macron spoke to in separate phone calls on Sunday, have "each accepted the principle of such a summit," the Elysee said in a statement early Monday.
"[The summit] can only be held if Russia does not invade Ukraine," it added.
Washington confirmed it is "committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. "President Biden accepted in principle a meeting with President Putin... if an invasion hasn't happened."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are also scheduled to meet on Thursday. The Elysee said the content of the proposed US-Russia summit will be planned by Blinken and Lavrov.
The announcement came days after Biden said he was "convinced" that Putin had decided to attack Ukraine "in the coming days," a claim that Moscow has denied.
Earlier on Sunday, Macron and Putin agreed to intensify the search for solutions to the Ukraine standoff during a nearly two-hour phone call.
The pair agreed on "the need to favor a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything to achieve one," Macron's office said, adding that both countries' foreign ministers would meet "in the coming days."
According to the Kremlin's version of the call, Putin blamed Kyiv for a military escalation in eastern Ukraine and agreed on the need to "intensify efforts to find solutions through diplomatic means."
Moscow said the talks would take place in the Normandy format, meaning with representatives of Russia and Ukraine under Franco-German moderation.
Macron then called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just a day after Kyiv said it would not respond to what it called Russia's "provocations," according to the Elysee, and remained open to "dialogue" with Moscow.
The two leaders discussed the "need and possible ways of immediate de-escalation," Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
