Joe Biden to meet Putin ‘in principle’ so long as Ukraine is not invaded: White House

Jen Psaki stated that the Biden-Putin meet-up will be scheduled only after Blinken and Lavrov meet on February 24th in Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron orchestrated the diplomatic meet-up between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. It was quite the herculean task given Emmanuel’s several phone calls to both the leaders.

Biden agreed to meet Putin ‘in principle’ so long as Ukraine was not invaded by Russian troops stated the White House on late Sunday.

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However, Jen Psaki attached little importance to the meet-up as per US officials there are high chances that Putin will declare an offensive towards Ukraine. The entire itinerary like the location, time and date is still not clear.

On Sunday night Jen Psaki in her statement mentioned that the US is always ready for diplomacy. However, the US is also ready to impose strict sanctions on Russia should the invasion transpire.

The French-brokered meet-up took a lot of phone calls from Emmanuel to Biden and Putin. As crises surround Europe Emmanuel is pulling up his diplomatic sleeves to avert the war. He met Vladimir Putin earlier this month and so far on calls twice.

“It shows how actively the French President is involved in working towards peace and is constantly increasing his efforts to avert the war at all costs,” said the French officials. Emmanuel stated that the Biden-Putin meet-up will be followed by an upcoming gathering of global leaders to discuss strategic stability and security in Europe.

Although which countries will participate is still not clear. Anthony Blinken on late Sunday said, “President Biden is prepared to engage President Putin at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war.”

Both leaders had met previously at the Geneva Summit in June. As we speak Russian troops are getting dangerously close to the Ukraine border for an imminent offensive any time.

US officials said guessing Putin’s next move is very very difficult as the Russian President has kept the strategy to himself that his closest associates are not aware of what his next move will be. Blinken and Lavrov will meet this week in Europe to discuss the Biden-Putin meet-up in detail.