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WASHINGTON. — US President Barack Obama has cancelled plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a one-on-one summit next month, the White House said yesterday, saying Moscow’s “disappointing decision” to grant asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was a factor. “We have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia Summit in early September,” the White House said in the statement.
“Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship,” the White House added.
The two leaders had been scheduled to meet in Moscow early next month ahead of the G20 meeting of top world leaders that begins on September 5 in St Petersburg. But the bilateral meeting was called into question by officials in Washington after Russia granted temporary asylum to Snowden, who is wanted on espionage charges in the United States in connection with classified information he leaked to the global media about secret US government telephone and electronic surveillance programmes.
Snowden was granted asylum last week after spending a month in a transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Washington has repeatedly called on Russia to expel Snowden and made clear immediately after he was granted asylum that the Obama-Putin summit was in jeopardy.
Putin had said he did not want the Snowden affair to damage Russia’s relations with the United States. US lawmakers and officials, however, have described Moscow’s decision to protect Snowden as a “slap in the face” to the United States and urged Obama to reconsider his entire approach to relations with Russia.
The White House said yesterday that US-Russia co-operation on these issues “remains a priority for the United States” and that US Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel would “discuss how we can best make progress moving forward on the full range of issues in our bilateral relationship” at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu scheduled for tomorrow. — RIA Novosti.
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