July 28 (UPI) — Senior government officials from the United States and Russia met in Switzerland on Wednesday to discuss strategic nuclear stability, a little more than a month after Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin met there for the first time.
Wednesday’s talks are the first of their kind on the subject this year. Biden and Putin met for several hours in Geneva on June 16 to discuss a range of topics, including nuclear security.
Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov are leading the meeting.
Sherman and Ryabkov are expected, among other items, to discuss arms control, cyberattacks and Ukraine.
Experts say both countries have a lot of ground to make up on the issues, owing mostly to the deterioration of relations between Washington and Moscow in recent years.
“We are sending the Americans a signal that they should not be naive and think that the conversation will only go according to their agenda,” Ryabkov said this month, according to TASS.
Earlier this month, Biden called on Putin to crack down on ransomware groups originating in Russia targeting the United States.