The Kremlin assumes that Biden will not accept Lukashenko's offer to meet Putin

MOSCOW, Feb. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Kremlin has assumed that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, will not accept in any case the offer launched by Belarus for a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, coinciding with the trip of the North American president to Poland.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered to host the meeting on Thursday. "Even Putin would fly to Minsk for this trilateral meeting: two 'aggressors' and the 'peace-loving' president. Why not?" he ironized during a meeting with journalists.

Yet even the Kremlin has acknowledged the improbability of Biden's acceptance. "The White House has said that the president is not preparing any other stop besides Poland, so it is unlikely that Washington will respond to this initiative," said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dimitri Peskov, on Friday.

However, from Moscow it is insisted that "Putin is always ready for dialogue with the Belarusian president", in whom he has found a political and military ally during the last year, marked by the military offensive launched against Ukraine.

Biden will travel to Poland next week, coinciding with the first anniversary of the conflict, and is not scheduled to cross into neighboring Ukraine, a country he has not visited so far.