Both the White House and the Kremlin have attempted to temper expectations and said not to expect any breakthroughs. Some issues expected to be covered include recent cyberattacks that the United States has said originated from Russia, arms control, human rights and climate change.
Here’s what to know:
Security is tight at Biden-Putin summit
Wednesday’s summit between Biden and Putin required tight security measures.
Ahead of the summit, Swiss authorities announced plans to deploy 1,000 troops to Geneva and restrict airspace over the city from Tuesday morning through Thursday evening. The Swiss air force was expected to police the restricted area and perform aerial surveillance during the event.
“As this is a high-level international summit, such a measure is necessary to ensure security during the event,” Switzerland’s Federal Council said in a statement. “Switzerland is obliged to ensure the protection of persons who enjoy special protection under international law, such as the American and Russian heads of state.”
An additional 2,000 police officers from all over Switzerland are providing an added layer of security. Stephane Theimer, vice director of the Federal Office of Police, warned last week that there could be “threats from extremist violent circles” during the summit, and that “the respective diasporas of the two countries could want to take advantage of the visit of their president to carry out actions.”
A large area surrounding the historic lakeside mansion where the summit is taking place was blocked off to the public on Wednesday, including two nearby parks. Much of Geneva’s harbor was also off-limits, with police and military personnel patrolling by boat and large coils of security fencing blocking the waterfront.
Geneva summit is Putin’s first trip abroad since pandemic
MOSCOW — Putin’s trip to Switzerland marks the first time the Russian president has traveled outside Russia in more than a year.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Putin has made few public appearances, largely conducting official meetings over video from his suburban Moscow residence. Those who wished to meet with Putin in person had to first quarantine for two weeks. That included the NBC crew who interviewed Putin in Moscow ahead of Wednesday’s summit.
Journalists in Geneva said the Kremlin brought in its own mobile laboratory to administer rapid coronavirus tests to those who planned to attend Putin’s news conference after the summit.
The Kremlin has been sensitive to reports of Putin being sealed off from possible infection “in a bunker” — a phrase jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny has used often. Putin has never been shown wearing a face mask. (But he did once visit a Moscow coronavirus hospital in a full Hazmat suit.)
Putin said he was vaccinated in late March, but he wouldn’t reveal which of Russia’s domestically made vaccines he received, and there were no photos or videos of him actually getting the jab.
First of two scheduled sessions between Biden and Putin concludes
The first of two scheduled sessions between Biden and Putin ended after about 90 minutes, the White House said.
For the first session, Biden was joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Putin was accompanied by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The initial session was to be limited to those four, plus interpreters.
The White House said in a statement that Biden and Putin were moving into an “expanded bilateral meeting,” with more aides joining on both sides.
Ahead of the summit, the White House signaled that it expected the meetings collectively to last four to five hours.
White House says Biden’s nod to a reporter was misinterpreted
The White House felt compelled Wednesday to clarify what Biden intended to convey with a nod during the opening moments of meeting with Putin.
At issue was a question shouted by NBC’s Elyse Perlmutter to Biden if he trusted Putin. According to reporters in the room, Biden appeared to look at Perlmutter and nod in the affirmative.
But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that gesture was misinterpreted.
“During a chaotic free for all with members of the press shouting questions over each other, the President gave a general head nod in the direction of the media,” she said in a statement. “He wasn’t responding to any question or anything other than the chaos.”
Earlier, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield pointed reporters back to comments Biden made Monday in which he said his approach with Putin would be to “verify, then trust.”
RNC says Biden’s appearance with Putin is a win for the Russian leader
The Republican National Committee on Wednesday criticized Biden’s meeting with Putin even before it began, suggesting that giving Putin an audience in Geneva amounted to handing the Russian leader a win.
“Giving Putin a meeting is just the latest win that Joe Biden has handed Russia,” Republican National Committee communications director Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Alvarez was also critical of the Biden administration’s decision last month to withhold sanctions against the company and the chief executive behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Critics of the pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, view its imminent completion and operation as a major geopolitical coup for the Kremlin.
“Biden’s foreign policy failures have strengthened Russia at the expense of our country,” Alvarez said. “The American people deserve a leader who prioritizes our interests and holds bad actors accountable.”
The RNC did not offer a similar critique of President Donald Trump’s 2018 summit with Putin in Helsinki at which Trump famously refused to criticize Putin for what U.S. intelligence agencies had said was a concerted effort by Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s conduct at that meeting was roundly criticized, including by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory” and said Trump had “abased himself … abjectly before a tyrant.”
Shoving ensues among press corps covering the summit
Biden and Putin began their summit with the relationship between their countries at its lowest point decades. The same might be true of their respective press corps.
Shoving ensued Wednesday morning as pools of reporters from the United States and Russia sought to enter the villa where the two leaders were meeting.
U.S. and Russian security officials repeatedly told reporters to line up separately and in single file, but that never happened, according to reporters on the scene.
Instead, the journalists pushed and shoved trying to enter the building. There was screaming and yelling as a Swiss official kept asking everyone to be quiet.
Reporters were told several times they would not be allowed inside unless everyone was orderly. But order never materialized.
The two leaders began speaking in the library of the villa without media inside the room. The reporters arrived noisily.
The Russian state news agency RIA framed the scene as American journalists attempting to “stampede” the meeting.
Putin expresses hope for a productive meeting; Biden says it’s important to meet face to face
Putin expressed hope for a productive meeting, and Biden said it was important to meet face to face, as the two leaders settled in for the beginning of an initial session in a library at the Villa La Grange.
In a chaotic scene witnessed by jostling pools of American and Russian reporters, both Putin and Biden spoke briefly before the journalists were ushered out of the room.
Biden was joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Putin was accompanied by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The initial session is expected to be limited to those four, plus interpreters.
“Mr. President, I would like to thank you for the initiative to meet today,” Putin told Biden. “The U.S. and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated at the highest level. … And I hope that the meeting will be productive.”
“As I said outside, it’s always better to meet face to face,” Biden responded.
Biden said he hopes the two countries can cooperate where they have mutual interests and find a path forward on issues on which they disagree.
He also referenced “two great powers,” a line certain to be welcomed by Moscow.
After this initial session, a larger meeting is expected to follow, with additional aides joining on both sides.
In a break with the past, Putin is punctual
GENEVA — Putin is notorious for making world leaders wait for him — turning a habit of running late into something of a machismo diplomatic power move.
Among Biden’s aides, there was chatter that Putin might try to pull the maneuver Wednesday in Geneva, arriving late for his scheduled meeting with Biden at the Villa La Grange here.
But Putin arrived before Biden — as previously agreed upon — almost exactly on time, at 1:04 p.m. local time, and the U.S. president arrived 15 minutes later, at 1:19 p.m. local.
After the two men had separately entered the villa, they reemerged several minutes later along with the president of the Swiss confederation. The leaders stood facing the media for several moments, before Biden and Putin — both smiling — reentered the mansion.
Putin’s reputation for late arrivals goes back years, showing up 50 minutes late to meet Pope Francis in 2013, three hours late for a meeting with then-Secretary of State John Kerry that same year, 40 minutes late for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela in 2012 and two hours late to meet the parents of children killed in an air crash in 2002.
Putin and Biden arrive at site of their summit, shake hands
Biden arrived at the Villa La Grange, a historic lakeside villa in Geneva, about 15 minutes after Putin for the start of their highly anticipated summit.
Both were greeted by Swiss President Guy Parmelin upon arrival following trips by their respective motorcades through the streets of Geneva.
Putin ducked out of his limousine and entered the historic mansion on the property without fanfare after greeting Parmelin with a handshake.
Biden paused for an extended handshake with Parmelin after getting out of his limousine.
Both returned to the front door of the mansion with Parmelin a few minutes later, standing on either side of him.
Parmelin welcomed both leaders to Geneva, calling it “the city of peace.”
“I wish you both presidents a fruitful dialogue in the interests of your two countries and the world,” Parmelin said.
Biden and Putin then shook hands and ignored shouted questions from reporters before heading inside.
Putin lands in Geneva. Will he keep Biden waiting?
MOSCOW — Putin’s plane touched down in Geneva about 30 minutes before the scheduled start of his summit with President Biden on Wednesday.
That could make the meeting with Biden a rare exception to Putin’s infamous habit of keeping world leaders waiting — sometimes for hours.
At his last meeting with a U.S. president, in 2018 with Donald Trump in Helsinki, Putin was 45 minutes tardy. That could be considered a compliment to Trump; in 2013, Putin was three hours late for a meeting with then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry in Moscow.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds the record, kept waiting more than four hours for a meeting with Putin in 2014.
Putin’s tardiness first made headlines when he made Queen Elizabeth II wait 14 minutes for him in 2003. (The Kremlin said he was stuck in a London traffic jam.) In 2015, during a visit to Vatican City, Putin was an hour late to a meeting with Pope Francis.
Putin showing up four hours late to a 2012 meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych caused something of a diplomatic row. Rather than show up on time, Putin “went to greet a group of Russian bikers known as the ‘Night Wolves’ whose events he has attended in the past,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Viktor Baloga, Ukraine’s emergency situations minister at the time, wrote on Facebook that Putin “exceeded the limits of lateness.”
U.S. officials expect summit with Putin to last at least four hours, touch on nuclear arms, cyberattacks and human rights
U.S. officials expect Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva to last at least four to five hours Wednesday and touch on an array of topics, including nuclear arms, cyberattacks and human rights.
The logistics were previewed for reporters flying with Biden on Air Force One on Tuesday from Brussels to Geneva by a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not yet been publicly announced.
Putin is expected to arrive at the meeting first, followed by Biden, and then they will both meet with Swiss President Guy Parmelin, the official said.
A small meeting — attended by the two presidents, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and interpreters — is expected to follow. After that, the official said, there will be a larger meeting, with the presidents joined by additional aides.
No meals — or “breaking of bread” — will be involved, the official said.
Before departing, both Putin and Biden are expected to hold separate news conferences.
In images: Putin’s rocky relationship with American presidents
When Biden meets with Putin on Wednesday, he will go where many recent U.S. presidents have gone before. The much-anticipated Geneva summit — on the heels of Biden’s whirlwind European tour — is expected to be tense. The new administration has been vocal in its opposition to cyberattacks on American companies by suspected Russian hackers, as well as the Kremlin’s crackdown on political opponents.
A tete-a-tete between Russian and American presidents is customary. Since the Cold War, the two countries have maintained open, if often strained, relations. Putin has met with every sitting president since Bill Clinton in moments filled with awkward silences, icy stares and sometimes professions of trust.
Biden had grins, hugs and ‘love’ for allies. But will not offer a morsel of bread to Putin.
Biden walked arm and backslapping arm with French President Emmanuel Macron along the beach in Carbis Bay, England, during the Group of Seven summit in an extended transatlantic, intergenerational display of comity. The two were not old pals catching up after more than a year of pandemic isolation, but they nonetheless were making up for lost time.
Their clubby embrace went on and on. And noticeably, interminably on. It transformed from spontaneous and casual into a vociferous rebuke of the tone and philosophy of the previous administration.
There’s diplomacy in the details, in the aesthetic grace notes. And in the empty spaces.
For his meeting with Putin on Wednesday, Biden’s administration has made it plain that there will be no side-by-side news conference. No mutual answering of questions. During their conversation, there will be no meal. No bread will be broken, but presumably there will, at least, be water.
Kremlin says with such a vast agenda, there will be no time limit for Biden-Putin talks
MOSCOW — Though officials have said to expect four to five hours of talks between Biden and Putin in Geneva, that might not be enough time to cover the extensive agenda for the summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television Wednesday.
They will talk for as long as they deem necessary, he added.
“No one is setting any time limits on the presidents,” Peskov said. “This will be completely their choice.”
Biden and Putin are expected to discuss cyberattacks, nuclear arms, human rights and climate change, among other issues. Putin might also want to express Russia’s position on Ukraine’s possible admission to NATO, considered an absolute red line for Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed for Kyiv to become a full member, but Biden said at a news conference in Brussels on Monday that “it remains to be seen.” He added that Ukraine must first meet the criteria, including cleaning up corruption.
“This is a new element. No such statements have been made before. Of course, Moscow has paid full attention to this,” Peskov said Wednesday, referencing Biden’s comments.
Putin “will clearly define our stance if necessary,” Peskov said.
The issue of returning Russia’s diplomatic property will also be raised by Putin, Peskov said. In 2016, President Barack Obama ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds and the expulsion of 35 Russians over interference in the U.S. presidential election that year.
"between" - Google News
June 16, 2021 at 09:19PM
https://ift.tt/3gGpfoi
Live updates: As Biden meets Putin in Geneva, Russian leader says he hopes summit will be productive - The Washington Post
"between" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WkNqP8
https://ift.tt/2WkjZfX
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Live updates: As Biden meets Putin in Geneva, Russian leader says he hopes summit will be productive - The Washington Post"
Post a Comment