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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet in Geneva on Wednesday to hold talks aimed at stopping a rapid decline in relations between two countries plagued by mutual mistrust.
At their first face-to-face meeting as leaders, the presidents will face accusations, complaints and charges against each other, including the alleged Russian cyberattacks and electoral interference, American sanctions against Moscow and the Kremlin’s suspicions about NATO’s military expansion into Eastern Europe.
Other irritants in the relationship are torn arms control agreements, war in Ukraine and that of Moscow imprisonment of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, leaving few obvious areas of cooperation.
Biden described Putin as a “worthy opponent” before his meeting and said he would clarify to the Russian leader “what the red lines are.”
He said Russia was seeking a wedge in transatlantic solidarity and that the US was experiencing an increase in malicious cyber activity.
“I will make it clear to President Putin that there are areas where we can cooperate, if he decides,” Biden said Monday. “And if he chooses not to cooperate and acts in a way he had in the past, in relation to cybersecurity and some other activities, we will respond. We will respond in kind.”
The summit is scheduled to begin at 1pm in Geneva and can last up to five hours, including breaks and talks between the two delegations, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. The presidents will meet in two formats: one a small group that includes the US Secretary of State and the Russian Foreign Minister and the other in a broader environment.
Biden traveled to Geneva after a week in Europe G7 meeting, EU and NATO allies. The response to Russia’s threats was continually raised in talks with Western leaders. The president of the United States said that world leaders had thanked him for holding the summit, which some analysts did. they have criticized how to grant Putin a diplomatic victory.
Moscow has tried to downplay expectations of major breakthroughs in talks. Analysts on both sides suggested that simply taking place, the meeting could at least mark a cold post-war nadir in the bilateral relationship.
Putin’s foreign adviser Yuri Ushakov called relations between Moscow and Washington “terrible.” “I think both sides understand that it is time to start tackling this backlog that has accumulated,” he told Russian news agencies.
The White House and the Kremlin have said they will focus on arms control, cybersecurity and climate change. The U.S. wants to discuss human rights, cooperation on Iran and Afghanistan, and Washington’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, where Russia gathered 100,000 troops earlier this year.
Kremlin officials said the talks would also include one potential exchange of citizens incarcerated in the prisons of others.
Ambassadors sent to the two countries left office earlier this year after a string of events sparked by Biden agreed with an interviewer that Putin was a “killer.” Both ambassadors are expected to return to their seats in Moscow and Washington after the summit, according to three people familiar with the plans.
Although he agreed to Russian requests for diplomatic choreography after the meeting – which could suggest a thaw in relations – Biden will hold a solo press conference instead of making a joint appearance with Putin.
In 2018, Donald Trump held a joint press conference with Putin in which the U.S. leader appeared to side with his Russian counterpart over that of his own intelligence community.
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