Is there anything Putin and Biden can talk about at all?

Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, February 16, that the Kremlin had no plans to hold a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden yet. As a matter of fact, are there any topics that the presidents of Russia and the United States could discuss during their meeting in person?

No plans for Putin-Biden summit yet

Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden had their first telephone conversation on January 26. For over 35 minutes, the two presidents mostly talked about the issues related to the extension of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.

The two countries are not holding any preparations for a personal meeting of the presidents, Peskov said.

"Disarmament is one thing. There will probably be several years of highly tense negotiations at the level of experts, this is for sure. However, as for contacts at the highest level, this is not on the agenda yet," he said.

In general, what could Putin and Biden talk about aside from the aforementioned topic of disarmament? Yuri Rogulyov, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States (the Moscow State University), believes that there are currently no special topics for the presidents of Russia and the United States to discuss.

"So far there are no grounds for such talks. I think that they may appear due to the fact that the strategic arms reduction treaty has been extended. Of course, the two parties will be working on proposals now on what shall be done next, because the treaty has been extended for a certain period of time, which envisages further steps," the expert told Pravda.Ru.

"In Russia, even the Security Council discussed further possible steps in the field of arms limitation, and I think that such discussions will take place in the United States too," the expert believes.

According to the political scientist, "apart from strategic issues, armament issues, there are few other topics that would require the presidents to intervene."

"For the time being, there are no real problems that would require coordination at the highest level. Therefore, I do not think that something like this may start in the near future. If there is no need to discuss important issues, why meet? For a cup of tea?" Yuri Rogulev noted.

"They talked on the phone because the deadlines were tight. There was only a week or two left until the treaty was going to expire. There was an urgent need to communicate so that one side knew the intentions of the other. The call from the American side meaning that it was ready to make efforts. The Americans may have also wondered whether Russia was ready," the expert said.

"In general, however, the atmosphere in the Russian-American relations remains very bad and negative," Yuri Rogulyov added.