Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden are holding phone talks late on Thursday. The additional call, the second one in December, comes ahead of the upcoming Russian-American security talks in Geneva.
Both Washington and Moscow had remained tight-lipped on the specific agenda of the discussion, which began late on Thursday night Moscow time.
While the White House signaled the topic of the Ukrainian standoff would be invoked, Moscow said the discussion of a comprehensive security agreement, proposed by Russia, will be on the table as well.
The Kremlin has linked the phone talks to the upcoming high-profile security talks in Geneva, scheduled for January 10, with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that “there is a need for another telephone conversation, which would come ahead of the start of negotiations.” The upcoming negotiations will be led by senior diplomatic officials, while the leaders of the two nations are not expected to attend them.