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US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may have left Geneva with the feeling of a job well done. The summit between two countries, besieged by mutual distrust, passed without further disagreement and a significant list of areas of cooperation was agreed upon.
But delving into the details and making tangible progress will be much more difficult, Russia warns.
“This is a challenge for higher diplomatic mathematics,” remarked Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. “In this matter, of course, it is important to show not only political will, but also a creative approach.”
Putin and Biden agreed at Thursday’s summit to restart talks on arms control, establish bilateral debates on cybersecurity and exploring the exchange potential of incarcerated citizens in the prisons of others. Both sides have failed to make progress in these areas in the past.
“There is no complete coincidence,” Ryabkov said in an interview released by the Foreign Ministry on Friday. “If that were the case, it would generally mean that all the agreements have already been reached.”
“On the contrary, we have the impression that the American approach contains constants very different from ours. Combining these approaches, these two formulas, will be a daunting task, “he said in reference to arms control talks, adding that additional consultations could begin” in a few weeks. “
The United States withdrew from the Medium Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which banned surface-to-air missiles ranging from 500 to 5,500 kilometers, under President Donald Trump and has resisted talks about a replacement agreement that does not include China.
Meanwhile, Washington has accused Russia of ordering, supporting or inciting cyberattacks on U.S. companies, government departments, and infrastructure. Moscow rejects these claims and says it is also a constant victim of piracy attempts.
And while Putin and Biden said there would be continued dialogue between their military in Syria, they are still in direct opposition to Moscow’s support for Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Biden said the test would be if the talks progressed over the next three to six months, but injected reporters with his own note of skepticism about the task pending after the summit: “When did I say I had confidence?”
Their separate press conferences allowed the two leaders to offer professional praise to each other, while reiterating long-standing complaints.
Biden condemned Russia’s deal against opposition activist Alexei Navalny and warned of “devastating consequencesFor Moscow he was dying in prison and also criticized the harassment of the Kremlin to foreign media.
Putin, speaking earlier, compared Navalny’s imprisonment to those prosecuted for participating in the January riot at the U.S. Capitol and cited the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay to accuse Biden of hypocrisy. on human rights.
But the general attitude of both suggested that the talks had at least stopped the spiraling decline in relations between the two countries towards a post-Cold War nadir.
“From the beginning we warned not to have excessive expectations for this summit. But now we can say, first and foremost, based on the opinion of the president himself, which can be described as positive, “Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday morning.
“The two leaders had the opportunity to present their positions directly and understand more or less clearly where interaction is possible and where there can be no interaction for now due to categorical disagreements.”
In a move that should help both sides turn presidential agreements into tangible results, each country’s ambassadors are expected to return to office in the next few days, after months of absence following the decision to return. them at home for consultations.
But Peskov warned against rapid progress. He said there were no concrete agreements on cybersecurity and “there is no deadline” for a possible prisoner exchange.
“There are framework discussions at the state level and then a very, very difficult job will start,” he said, referring to the prisoner exchange. “You have to sit down and talk at work. In fact, it is the same for the rest of the issues. “
A senior Biden administration official, who said the goal of the summit was to inject stability and predictability into the relationship, also kept expectations low.
“[W]We are not turning on a light switch, “the official told reporters after the summit.” It will be an ongoing process and the final test is whether there are practical results. “
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