“

There is never any substitute for leader-to-leader engagement, particularly for complex relationships, but with Putin this is exponentially the case, he has a highly personalized style of decision making and so it is important for President Biden to be able to sit down with President Biden face to face, to be clear about where we are, to understand where President Biden is, to try to manage our differences, and to identify those areas where we can work in America's interests to make progress.