Joe Biden’s first meeting with Vladimir Putin lasted nearly two hours

US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin opened their long-awaited Geneva summit on Wednesday with a handshake, aimed at easing tensions between the two countries and finding points of agreement.

The first meeting between the two leaders since Biden was president, during which they were accompanied by their respective foreign ministers, lasted around two hours, according to the Kremlin.

The two leaders arrived within minutes of each other at Villa La Grange, a magnificent 18th century building located in the heart of the Swiss city, and were greeted by Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who wished them good luck in this meeting which promised to be complicated.

Biden took the initiative and contacted Putin. “It’s always better to meet face to face,” said the US president at the start of this summit, the first with the Russian leader since he arrived at the White House in January.

Putin, for his part, said he was confident that the “meeting will be productive.”

After this first meeting in a reduced format with Biden, Putin and the heads of American and Russian diplomacy, Antony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov, a larger working session was planned.

The Kremlin chief arrived in Geneva at noon on Wednesday, half an hour before the start of the meeting, and the American had already arrived on Tuesday, from Brussels, where he participated in a NATO summit and in another of its allies in the European Union.

Marked differences

Since coming to power, the 46th President of the United States has adopted a firm tone regarding Putin, to clarify the differences with his erratic predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden further promised that He will point out to his counterpart who are “the red lines” which should not be franked.

“I’m not looking for a conflict with Russia, but We will respond if Russia continues its nefarious activities“, warned the American president before the summit.

If the White House has insisted on the fact that spectacular advances should not be expected, the 78-year-old president knows that in Geneva he has the opportunity to restore his image as an excellent negotiator.

In recent days, observers have recalled the famous Geneva summit between Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, which marked the beginning of the thaw of the Cold War.

“I’m always ready,” Biden said upon arriving in Geneva and asked about his state of mind ahead of this meeting which is focusing the world’s attention.

A point for Russia?

But the Russian president also has a long experience of summits. Since coming to power at the end of 1999, he has already worked with four American presidents. Biden is the fifth.

Many experts agree that Putin has already achieved what he wanted most: to organize the summit as shows the importance of Russia on the world stage.

In an interview with NBC, Putin said he expected the Democratic president to be less impulsive than his Republican predecessor.

But he took the opportunity to describe Donald Trump as a “talented” man.

The only point of agreement between the White House and the Kremlin is that relations between the two countries are at their lowest in decades.

Rude and difficult dialogueIn addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

There are many controversial topics and the talks are going to be tough and difficult, especially on Ukraine and Belarus.

One of the most sensitive topics is online disinformation and cyber attacks.

Beyond the attempt to interfere in the 2016 elections for the benefit of Donald Trump, massive cyber attacks Recently registered against companies such as SolarWinds, Colonial Pipeline and JBS and attributed to Moscow or Russian-based hacker groups, they shocked Washington.

Armored city

The Swiss city chosen for this summit is under high security, but a small group of protesters wanted to show their support for Alexei Navalny, Leader of the Russian opposition who is in prison after surviving a poisoning he attributes to the Kremlin.

Many chanted “A Russia without Putin”.

Tuesday, from Brussels, Joe Biden issued a clear warning about the Russian activist. Navalny’s death “would be a tragedy,” the US president said.

“It would deteriorate relations with the rest of the world and also with me,” he warned.

The President of Switzerland, Guy Parmelin, was optimistic about this meeting.

“The world has been going through a pandemic for 18 months which has struck terribly. The meeting in Geneva represents an opportunity for the presidents of the United States and Russia to instill a little more optimism, a little more hope in the global politics, ”he said.

Source: AFP

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