(Washington) The White House on Friday clarified Joe Biden’s remarks the day before, insisting that the American president did not plan to discuss the Ukrainian file for the moment with Vladimir Putin.
“He has no intention of talking to Mr. Putin at this time,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, which reports to the White House, on Friday. “And as (Mr. Biden) also said, Putin has shown absolutely no interest in any dialogue whatsoever — it’s actually quite the opposite,” he told reporters.
Joe Biden said on Thursday that he was “ready to talk to Putin if he seeks a way to end the war”, while noting that the Russian president had “not yet done so”.
“If that were the case, then in consultation with my French and NATO friends, I would be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he has in mind. He hasn’t done it yet,” he said during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The remarks come closest to signaling Washington’s openness to a dialogue with the Kremlin over the war in Ukraine, but Moscow “obviously” rejected the proposal on Friday, understanding that it implied a departure of Russian troops from Ukraine, an option that Russia does not consider.
Kirby also denied that the United States was pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to resume talks with Moscow.
“The president was not saying at all that the time had come to conduct talks,” he said. “The war could end today without negotiations if Putin does the right thing and leaves Ukraine. His troops have nothing to do there. »