New US President Joe Biden met on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time since entering the White House to discuss several issues at the heart of tensions between the two rival countries.
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"
He called President Putin this afternoon with the intention of discussing our desire to extend for five years 'New Start'
, the bilateral disarmament treaty which expires in early February,"
but also to reaffirm our support firm to the sovereignty of Ukraine in the face of persistent aggression from Russia,
”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Joe Biden also expressed his concern about the "poisoning" of Alexey Navalny, the Russian opponent arrested by Moscow on January 17 on his return to Russia after a five-month convalescence in Germany.
"Normalization" of relations
As for Russian President Vladimir Poutine, he supported a "
normalization
" of Russian-American relations, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Russian president "
noted that a normalization of relations between Russia and the United States would meet the interests of both countries but also those of the entire international community, given the special responsibility (of these two States) in maintaining security and stability in the world
”, reported the Russian presidency.
