President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Wednesday to initiate talks on cybersecurity and limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons during their summit in Geneva, Switzerland, after months of tensions and cross accusations.
The presidents also decided that their respective ambassadors return to Washington and Moscow, from where they were expelled in April as a result of the escalation of tension.
Biden confirmed that both agreed to advance in the talks to determine that certain types of infrastructures are safe from cyber attacks.
In this sense, he assured that they will hold new negotiations to discuss the persecution of criminals who perpetrate "ransomwares", cyberattacks that demand a ransom to recover the stolen data.
In his opinion, 16 sectors should be protected, including energy and water, he explained to the press.
The United States has long accused Russia of being behind a series of cyberattacks suffered in recent years, as well as interfering in the presidential campaigns of 2016 and 2020.
"We believe that cybersecurity is important for the world in general, for the United States in particular and also for Russia," said the Russian president.
Another of the points agreed upon in the bilateral meeting was to establish a "strategic stability dialogue", in which military experts and diplomatic officials will participate, to lay the foundations for future arms control and risk reduction measures.
"Today we reaffirm the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and that it should never be fought," both leaders said in a joint statement.
"The United States and Russia have shown that, even in periods of tension, they are capable of advancing our shared goals of ensuring predictability in the strategic sphere, reducing the risk of armed conflict and the threat of nuclear war," they noted.
Russian dissent
The handshake that both leaders gave to each other sealed the climate in which the summit took place.
Biden appreciated the calm atmosphere of the conversation, described as "constructive" by Putin.
"Our point of view on many issues differs, but, in my opinion, both parties showed a desire to understand each other and seek ways to get closer," said the Russian president during his post-meeting press conference.
One of the issues that continues to separate them is the Russian opposition.
Biden expressed concern about the treatment of dissidents, including Alexei Navalny, currently in jail after surviving nerve agent poisoning.
He also spoke of the case of two US citizens "wrongfully imprisoned" in Russia.
Putin told reporters about Navalny, whose name he never mentioned, that he "deliberately moved to be arrested."
The leaders also spoke of Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Ukraine and the Arctic, where the United States reproaches Russia for its intention to "militarize" this region.
The Russian president rejected these "unfounded accusations", stating that his country is implementing bases from which it can carry out rescues in case of accidents and work for the environment, so both should "collaborate".
The President of the United States, Joe Biden (second from the left), and the President of Russia (third from the left), Vladimir Putin, together with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, (first from the left), and the Minister of Russian Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov (right) during the bilateral meeting at Villa la Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. (Mikhail Metzel / Pool Photo via AP) AP
The appointment was divided into three parts.
In the first, only the presidents participated with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Members of both governments also spoke in the next two sessions.
During the moments before the start of a summit there were unusual moments, with shouts and shoves from reporters who reproached members of Putin's security for preventing them from doing their work.
Background
Biden and Putin attended the meeting with the aim of moving towards the thaw of their relations.
The president categorically denied in an exclusive interview with our sister network NBC News the accusations made by the US government.
"We have been accused of all kinds of things," Putin stressed, "Interference in elections, cyberattacks and a long etcetera. And not once, not once, have they bothered to present any kind of proof or evidence. Only accusations. unfounded, "he added.
The Russian president also
rejected the accusations that linked him to the murder of several opposition leaders
in his country.
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Biden said earlier this week that it would be an important step if the United States and Russia can finally find "stability and predictability" in their relationship, a seemingly modest goal for dealing with whom the president considers one of America's main adversaries.
"We should decide which areas are of mutual interest, the interest of the world, cooperate and see if we can do it," said the US president.
"And on the areas in which we do not agree, make it clear what the red lines are," he said.
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Putin agreed that the bilateral relationship needs to be more "stable and predictable ... this is something we have not seen in recent years."
But his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told The Associated Press on Wednesday before the meeting that they expected no progress and that "the situation is too difficult in Russian-American relations."
In his opinion, "the fact that the two presidents have agreed to meet and finally start talking openly about the problems is already an achievement."
The Russian president acknowledged during the interview with NBC News that Biden "is radically different" from former President Donald Trump, whom he called an "extraordinary individual", but compared his behavior to Biden's long career in politics.
"That's a different kind of person," Putin said of Biden.
"I am very hopeful that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages,
but there will be no impulsive movement on the part of the sitting US president
," he added.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin is defiant during an interview with NBC News, days before his meeting with Joe Biden. NBC News
In the two months since Biden invited Putin to meet him, various Russian groups have been linked to cyberattacks against US government agencies, as well as a major meat producer and the largest oil pipeline on the East Coast.
Russia also backed the president of Belarus, a Moscow ally, when he landed a plane to detain a dissident journalist.
And before the Geneva summit, he banned several political organizations linked to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in jail after surviving a nerve agent poisoning.
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The president arrived in Geneva on Tuesday after meeting in recent days with his G-7 partners, the United Kingdom and NATO, seeking to strengthen the worn-out US alliances left by Trump at the end of his term and to make a common front. before China and Russia.
Putin arrived on the same Wednesday.
With information from NBC News and The Associated Press.
