The highly tense Biden Putin meet is taking place on the 16th of June. This will be the first meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia since John Biden was sworn in. However, experts do not expect any breakthroughs on the wide range of topics the countries disagree on.
Leaders Hold Out Hope For The Biden Putin Meet
The two leaders, however, are hopeful the Biden Putin meet will lay the foundation for predictable and stable relations. The talks are going to take place in a lakeside villa in Geneva. However, it is difficult to find even one common ground, on topics ranging from cyber-hacking to Ukraine.
A senior official from the U.S. said that they were not expecting very big deliverables from the Biden Putin meet. However, the talks should last for about four to five hours. Both Biden and Putin had arrived at the venue of the summit much before time on Wednesday.
Yuri Ushakov, the advisor on foreign policy for Putin, echoed the U.S. sentiments, saying he is not certain if there will be any agreements in the Biden Putin meet.
For years, relations have been deteriorating between the two countries. The notable starting point was in 2014 when Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Then, in 2015, Russia had intervened in Syria. In 2016, the United States had claimed that Russia had meddled with the elections which saw Donald Trump become the president of the nation.
In March, relations hit a new low as Biden referred to Putin as a “killer”. Russia had immediately recalled its Washington ambassador for further consultations. The US did the same in April. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, said that the matter of ambassadors will be a major point in the Biden Putin meet.
