Due to the aggravation of the military and political situation around Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden refused to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This was stated by White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, reportsThe Washington Post.
She that President Biden has no plans to participate in a summit with Putin, hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken called off a meeting with his Russian counterpart that was to be held later this week.
" Diplomacy can’t succeed unless Russia changes course,” Psaki said. “And as [Blinken] said, it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to have a meeting with his counterpart at this point in time, Foreign Minister [Sergei] Lavrov. And it was always intended that any engagement with President Putin would follow that. So at this point, that is certainly not in the plans," she said.
Psaki said Tuesday that Russia would have to de-escalate its actions in Ukraine to put a meeting between Biden and Putin back on the table.
“De-escalation means moving troops,” Psaki said when asked to specify what actions the United States would need to see from Russia to host a meeting. “It means de-escalating from … the steps they continue to take on a daily basis.”
Psaki noted that Blinken’s decision to call off the Geneva meeting with Lavrov did not signify an end to a diplomatic approach to the crisis.