These meetings, particularly for the U.S. side are big opportunities. Because in our system, there are lots of people who are empowered at different levels of the governments to make different decisions, at least about matters of policy that don't rise to the level of war and peace.
Finer explains the importance of U.S. officials taking advantage of meetings with Putin to influence policy.
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What it can`t do is stop the Security Council from meeting, stop members of the Security Council from calling Russia out for the actions that it has taken, and forcing Russia to defend itself.
It is our position that all countries, including Israel, including the United States, need to adhere to laws of armed conflict.
It is very important to the president and to all of us that Americans be included in any arrangement.
We`ve also been increasing substantially the amount of security assistance that we provide to the Ukrainians, more than $650 million worth of security assistance to help them defend their territory.