The Biden-Putin summit in Geneva ended earlier than expected.
The bilateral relationship between the great powers is at its lowest point.
On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, from 1 p.m., the summit meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin took place on Lake Geneva.
Biden announced that he wanted to show Putin “red lines”.
In addition, one wanted to talk about common interests between the USA * and Russia *.
Joe Biden and Putin have agreed that the ambassadors will return.
(see update from June 16, 6:03 p.m.).
Update from June 16, 6:03 p.m.:
According to Putin, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the return of their ambassadors to Moscow and Washington at their summit in Geneva.
Putin said that after the meeting on Wednesday.
The diplomats returned to their homeland in the spring as tensions between the two countries grew.
Biden-Putin summit on “red lines” ended prematurely: Now both of them appear separately in front of the cameras
Update from June 16, 5:51 p.m.:
The meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva is after about three and a half hours, according to representatives of the White House. That is less than both sides had previously promised. The Russian delegation had prepared for at least four to five hours of talks. It was the first summit of the presidents of the two largest nuclear powers since Biden took office in January. Afterwards, both heads of government want to appear in front of the press individually. According to his own statements, Biden also wanted to address human rights violations in Russia in the talks.
Update from June 16, 4:10 p.m.:
The first round of talks at the Biden-Putin summit is over. The White House said on Wednesday that the conversation between the two presidents and their foreign ministers, Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, plus the translator, had lasted 93 minutes. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, 75 minutes were originally scheduled.
In a second round, Biden and Putin wanted to meet with a wider group of their delegations after a break.
From the Russian side Lavrov, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration, Dmitri Kosak, who is also responsible for the Ukraine conflict, should take part.
Putin's special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, should also be there.
The US broadcaster CNN reported that on the US side, in addition to Biden and Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, top diplomat Victoria Nuland, Russia advisor Eric Green and the US Ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, should take part in the second round of talks.
After the summit, Putin and Biden will appear separately in front of the press.
Update from June 16. 2:05 p.m.:
The summit between US President Joe Biden and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Geneva has begun.
Biden said at the beginning of the meeting that it was "always better to meet face to face".
Putin expressed hope that "the meeting will be productive".
Biden-Putin summit starts with a handshake - but political scientist gives bitter prospects
Update from June 16. 1:35 p.m.:
The summit meeting between Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden began on Wednesday at 1:25 p.m.
The heads of government greeted each other with a brief handshake.
The Swiss President Guy Parmelin had previously received the two of them in the “City of Peace” and wished them fruitful discussions.
The three initially stood next to each other.
June 16 update. 1:25 p.m.:
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on Wednesday in front of US President Joe Biden at the location of the summit. In front of the Villa La Grange above Lake Geneva, he was greeted by the Swiss President Guy Parmelin. When Biden arrived on Tuesday, Parmelin drove to the airport, but Putin had not given an official greeting there. Putin actually has a reputation for arriving late at meetings. Shortly afterwards, the Bidens motorcade set off from the Hotel Intercontinental. The ways are short, from there it is less than five kilometers to Villa La Grange.
The summit will take place in the villa's library from 1821.
On the shelves is a renowned book collection of around 15.00 works.
In the villa, both delegations also have several rooms where the presidents can retreat for breaks.
The conversations should last several hours.
Summit: Biden warns “killer” Putin of “red lines” - political scientist gives bitter prospects
Update from June 16, 1 p.m.:
The Russian political scientist Andrei Kortunov, head of the “Russian International Affairs Council” gave
Der Spiegel
an assessment of the upcoming summit of Biden and Putin. The two politicians are expected to meet shortly. There are enough topics, the relationship between the USA and Russia is tense. “Biden embodies that liberal approach to world politics that, in my opinion, Putin does not fully understand and does not like. Statesmen with a clearly authoritarian style, such as Xi Jinping or Erdoğan, are closer to him, ”says Kortunow. He estimates: The chemistry will probably not be right.
In the German-Russian relationship, sympathy plays a subordinate role, while respect is more important. And the Russian head of government has not yet decided whether the US president deserves his respect. According to the political scientist, Putin is concerned with whether Biden will become a “strong” or a “weak” president. If the latter were true, “then it makes no sense for Putin to invest in him, so to speak.” However, Kortonov sees Biden as quoted by
Der Spiegel
, the US president with the greatest foreign policy experience.
“This is not Trump, not even Obama.
In this regard, he is arguably the strongest American counterpart with whom Putin has ever negotiated, ”the interview continued.
His conclusion on the Biden-Putin summit: "The specialty of this Geneva meeting is: Anything that is not a clear failure will pass as a success."
Summit: Biden warns “killer” Putin of “red lines” - is something moving in the Navalny case?
June 16 update. 11.45 a.m.:
It should start in just over an hour: The eagerly awaited summit meeting of US President Joe Biden and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The relationship between the two countries is considered to be very tense. Biden is currently on a trip abroad. The democrat has already passed important stages: G7 summit, NATO meeting and EU-US summit. Relations with Russia were one of the topics. The US president is likely to have complex issues with him, including cyber attacks on the USA and electoral influence, the situation in Ukraine and the human rights situation in Russia.
Update from June 16, 10:00 a.m.:
Before the eagerly awaited summit meeting of Putin and Biden, the Kremlin is not ruling out the possibility that the talks could last longer than originally planned.
The agenda is so complex that it is difficult to summarize it in four to five-hour talks, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on state television on Wednesday.
According to Peskov, the meeting is also about a possible return of the respective ambassadors to Moscow and Washington.
Russia withdrew its ambassador because of Biden's "killer" statement about Putin and later asked the US ambassador to return to his homeland as part of new "anti-Russian sanctions".
Before the summit in Geneva: Biden warns “killer” Putin of “red lines”
First report from June 16, 9:00 a.m .:
Geneva - US President Joe Biden and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet on neutral ground on Wednesday.
The relationship between the great powers Russia and the USA is considered tense.
At the beginning of his presidency, Biden even indirectly called the Russian ruler a "killer" * - now the two men see each other in person on Lake Geneva.
Even before that, however, the politicians had agreed on at least one point: the bilateral relationship had reached a “low point”.
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© Sergei Bobylev via www.imago-images.de
It is not the first meeting of politicians.
They met back in 2011 when Biden was still Vice President under Barack Obama.
A scene is said to have taken place that is more reminiscent of a James Bond film than a political meeting.
Speaking to a journalist for
New Yorker
magazine,
Democrat Biden recalled years later: "I said, 'Prime Minister, I look into your eyes and I don't think you have a soul.'
Putin * then smiled at him and replied: "We understand each other."
US President Biden meets Russia's Putin: Issues in the bilateral relationship between the great powers
It should start at 1 p.m. on Wednesday in Villa La Grange, four to five hours are planned. There will be breaks and a change in formats, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov in Moscow on Tuesday. Biden enters the talks with one clear goal: a "stable, predictable relationship". After the NATO summit on Monday, he called Putin a “worthy opponent”. He went on to state: "I will make President Putin understand that there are areas in which we can work together if he chooses," says Biden. "And in the areas where we disagree, make it clear what the red lines are."
Biden is therefore likely to raise a whole range of points of contention in Geneva: From Washington's point of view, Moscow is responsible for cyberattacks in the US and for meddling in US elections. The conflict in Ukraine will also be on the agenda. In addition to other topics, Biden wants to address the human rights situation in Russia and the poisoning and imprisonment of the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny *. The Kremlin, on the other hand, regularly warns against overly high expectations.
Russia is ready to cooperate, but not at any price.
One would like a meeting with “respect on an equal footing, but no instruction”.
A possible important result in Geneva is the return of the respective ambassadors to Moscow and Washington after the “killer” scandal.
Meanwhile, great hopes for the summit are coming from Germany.
"There are opportunities to get disarmament initiatives off the ground again between these two states," said Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD).
(aka with material from agencies) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
List of rubric lists: © Mikhail Metzel / AFP
