US President Joe Biden did not rule out meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. "We will look into this matter," Biden told reporters, in response to a question about the possibility of holding a direct meeting with the Russian president during the summit. The White House that a similar meeting is not possible.

But the two presidents' plans to go to Indonesia still require confirmation. The White House had announced that if Putin went to the G20 summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should participate in it as well, even though his country is not a member of the group.

In addition, Biden said Thursday that he is confident of holding a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, if the latter comes to Bali.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced in an interview with Bloomberg in August that the Russian and Chinese presidents would attend the summit.
This comes after US President Joe Biden considered that Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine endanger humanity for the first time since the Cuban missile crisis in the middle of the Cold War (Armageddon).

"We haven't faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis" in 1962, Biden said at a fundraiser in New York, adding that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was "not joking" when he made the threats.

"For the first time since the Cuban missile crisis, there is a direct threat of the use of nuclear weapons if things continue as they are," the US president added.

From October 14 to 28, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis raised fears of a nuclear war. At that time, photos taken by an American spy plane revealed the presence of Soviet missile launchers in Cuba, an ally of Moscow, that reached the American shores.

Faced with stiff Ukrainian resistance fueled by Western military aid, Putin alluded to the atomic bomb in a televised address on September 21. The Russian president said he was ready to use "all means" in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting to "destroy" Russia.

Experts say such attacks would likely use tactical nuclear weapons.

Biden stressed that Putin "is not joking when he talks about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological or chemical weapons, because his military, we can say, is largely underperforming." "I don't think there is anything like being able to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon without ending up causing Armageddon," he said.

And Biden added, "We are trying to understand how Putin will find a way out, how he will be positioned in such a way that he does not lose face and does not lose a large part of his power in Russia."
Source: agencies