White House 'unable' to predict when next meeting between Biden & Putin will take place

The White House currently has no update on the tentative date for a future meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said reiterating US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's statement during a regular press briefing on Thursday. When asked if Russia and the US are mulling to hold more talks over the simmering tensions at the Ukraine border, Sullivan informed: "There are no dates set for any more talks," adding that the US and it's partners are "prepared for contingency" if any occurs while maintaining "diplomacy in good faith." He went on to add that he would like to believe that Russia will maintain their "pessimistic sign" over invasion attempts of Ukraine.

"I don't have anything to predict for you on that front. As Jake mentioned, we are just controlling the third round of talks (over Russia's actions against Ukraine). People (Diplomats) are going to go back to their capitals. They are going to discuss and assess and see where things stand. So, in terms of next steps, we will have to see, no more over the coming days," White House Press Secretary Psaki said in her statement.

The remarks come after Russia held a meeting with the US and NATO earlier in the week to discuss security guarantees requested from them. The proposed guarantees included Moscow's demand to secure immunity against the US-led Allied Forces' expansion in Eastern Europe and prohibit both. Nevertheless, the US insisted that it will not allow anyone close to NATO's open-door policy for new members.

For a recap, tensions between US and Russia expanded since the latter deployed over 90,000 troops in the Donbas region at the Ukrainian border. Since then, Russia has made repeated hostile claims sparking fears of potential invasion of Kyiv. In addition, nearly 1,000 troops last month carried out military exercises replicating defence action during an attack.

Russia must choose diplomacy or confrontation with West: US

Following the US-Russia-NATO talks, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman warned Moscow that it must choose either diplomacy or confrontation with the West. Referring to Russia's demands to secure border tensions at Ukraine's Donbas, Sherman asserted that NATO and US would never agree to veto Ukraine's admission to the military alliance. "Russia, most of all, how to make will have to decide whether they are really all about security, in which case they should engage, or whether this was all a pretext. And they may not even know yet," Deputy Secretary Sherman said, as quoted by BBC.

(Image: AP)