Putin, Biden discuss cybersecurity, Syria

Moscow, July 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden discussed cybersecurity issues and the situation in Syria during a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement.

In the telephonic conversation on Friday, the two leaders agreed to continue their constructive cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Putin noted that despite Russia's willingness to cooperate on cybercrime suppression with the US, the Russian side has not received requests on this matter, according to the statement.

"This cooperation should be carried out using specialised channels for data exchange between authorised government agencies, within the framework of bilateral legal mechanisms, as well as in compliance with the provisions of international law," said the Kremlin.

The leaders further covered the humanitarian situation in Syria and joint Russia-US efforts on this issue within the UN Security Council, according to the statement.

Later in the day while addressing reporters in Washington, Biden said his phone conversation with Putin "went well", TASS News Agency reported

"I made it very clear to him that the US expects, when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, even though it's not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is.

"And, secondly, that we have set up a means of communications now, on a regular basis, to be able to communicate to one another when each of us thinks something is happening in another country that affects the home country.

"And so, it (the phone conversation) went well. I'm optimistic," he added.

The phone call was the first since Biden and Putin had their in-person meeting in Geneva on June 16.

Source: IANS