Lavrov: We do not expect a major breakthrough at the Putin-Biden summit, and we are ready to organize a meeting of the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his country does not expect the upcoming summit between President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva to achieve significant results in terms of improving relations between the two countries.

“We have no illusions or high expectations that the Biden-Putin summit will achieve a major breakthrough,” Lavrov said in a speech he delivered today, Wednesday, during the annual “Primakov Readings” international forum in Moscow.

He added that Putin’s meeting with Biden in itself is important, and he expressed his hope that the two presidents will be able to determine the approach to issues of strategic stability, stressing that Moscow is ready for an equal, transparent and honest dialogue.

The

Russian minister considered that any dialogue between the leaders of the two largest nuclear powers is important for international security in any case, saying that the language of warnings and sanctions is not appropriate when talking with Russia.

It is scheduled to meet the US and Russian presidents on the 16th of this month in Geneva. Recently, Biden announced that he would tell Putin that Washington would not stand idly by in the face of Russia’s human rights abuses.

On the other hand, Putin criticized the US policy towards his country, especially with regard to sanctions.

Palestinian-Israeli meeting

On another issue, the Russian Foreign Minister announced – in his speech today – that his country is open to organizing a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships in the capital, Moscow, as soon as possible.

Lavrov said that Moscow is actively seeking to resume the work of international mediators between the Palestinian and Israeli sides soon.

He added, “For obvious reasons, we have to wait for the results of internal political processes in Israel. Unfortunately, our many warnings, which spanned for many years, regarding the inability to promote the concept of normalizing relations at the expense of the Palestinian problem, were ignored.”

Relationship with the West

On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Minister said that Russia cannot ignore that the West is behaving in an “aggressive” manner and is trying to give itself an advantage over the rest of the world.

“We cannot ignore the unwillingness of the West to recognize the fact that the world has become multipolar,” Lavrov added.

The Russian minister also said that the international political system is going through a “phase of bumps and contradictions.”