Biden to meet Putin for Geneva summit, says White House

25 May 2021, 15:44

Joe Biden shakes hands with Vladimir Putin
US Russia. Picture: PA

The face-to-face meeting next month has been set amid escalating tensions between the US and Russia.

Joe Biden will hold a summit with Vladimir Putin next month in Geneva, a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders that comes amid escalating tensions between the US and Russia in the first months of the Biden administration.

The White House confirmed details of the summit on Tuesday.

The two leaders’ scheduled meeting, set for June 16, is being tacked on to the end of Mr Biden’s first international trip as president next month when he visits Britain for a meeting of Group of Seven leaders and Brussels for the Nato summit.

Mr Biden first proposed a summit in a call with Mr Putin in April as his administration prepared to levy sanctions against Russian officials for the second time during the first three months of his presidency.

White House officials said earlier this week that they were ironing out details for the summit. National security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed details of the meeting when he met with his Russian counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev.

The White House has repeatedly said it is seeking a “stable and predictable” relationship with the Russians, while also calling out Putin on allegations that the Russians interfered in last year’s US presidential election and that the Kremlin was behind a hacking campaign — commonly referred to as the SolarWinds breach — in which Russian hackers infected widely used software with malicious code, enabling them to access the networks of at least nine US agencies.

Joe Biden
President Joe Biden (Evan Vucci/AP)

The Biden administration has also criticised Russia for the arrest and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and publicly acknowledged that it has low to moderate confidence that Russian agents were offering bounties to the Taliban to attack US troops in Afghanistan.

The Biden administration announced sanctions in March against several mid-level and senior Russian officials, along with more than a dozen businesses and other entities, over a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack on Mr Navalny in August 2020 and his subsequent jailing.

Mr Navlany returned to Russia days before Mr Biden’s January 20 inauguration and was quickly arrested.

Last month, the administration announced it was expelling 10 Russian diplomats and sanctioning dozens of Russian companies and individuals in response to the SolarWinds hack and election interference allegations.

But even as Mr Biden moved forward with the latest round of sanctions, he acknowledged that he held back on taking tougher action — an attempt to send the message to Mr Putin that he still held hope that the US and Russia could come to an understanding for the rules of the game in their adversarial relationship.

In fact, he brought up the idea of holding a third-country summit in an April 13 call in which he notified Mr Putin that a second round of sanctions was coming.

The days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions — interfering with our election, cyber attacks, poisoning its citizens — are over

Joe Biden

During his campaign for the White House, Biden described Russia as the “biggest threat” to U.S. security and alliances, and he disparaged his predecessor President Donald Trump for his cozy relationship with Putin. Trump avoided direct confrontation with Putin and often sought to downplay the Russian leader’s malign actions.

Weeks into his presidency, Mr Biden said in an address before State Department employees that he told Mr Putin in their first call that he would be taking a radically different approach to Russia than Donald Trump.

“I made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions — interfering with our election, cyber attacks, poisoning its citizens — are over,” said Mr Biden, who last week spoke to Mr Putin in what White House officials called a tense first exchange.

“We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interests and our people.”

In March, Mr Biden in an ABC News interview responded affirmatively when asked by interviewer George Stephanopoulos whether he thought Putin was “a killer.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr Biden’s comment demonstrated he “definitely does not want to improve relations” with Russia and that relations between the countries were “very bad”.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

French President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech to announce a multi-year overhaul, long-term investments to modernise the Louvre museum

British tourists to be charged more for entry to the Louvre because UK left the EU

Boom's Supersonic XB-1 demonstrator is the first civil aircraft to break the sound barrier since the Concorde

‘New Concorde’ breaks sound barrier during test flight, as owner 'plans commercial trips'

The 2025 Doomsday Clock time is displayed after the time reveal held by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the United States Institute of Peace on January 28, 2025

‘Continuing on the current path is a form of madness’ - Doomsday Clock moves closer than ever to midnight

The tail of an Air Busan passenger plane with 176 people on board has caught fire before take-off at an airport in South Korea.

Fire breaks out on plane in South Korea with 170 passengers onboard

Google is changing the name of Gulf of Mexico into Gulf of America following Donald Trump's order

Google Maps to change name of Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ after Trump order

Protesters have been setting fire and  looting the US and French embassies. Here protesters surround the French embassy

Armed protesters set fire to US and French embassies in Congo

Selena Gomez shared a tearful post over the ICE raids

'We have no apologies': Trump's border czar hits out at Selena Gomez as she shares tearful post over ICE raids

January 6 rioter shot dead by police.

Jan 6 rioter pardoned by Trump shot dead by police in traffic stop

A power line was seen sparking near a petrol station.

Is this what started the LA wildfires? Fresh footage shows power line 'sparking' near origin of Eaton blaze

Trump is set to sign the new orders on Monday, according to his new defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in today.

Donald Trump to ban transgender troops and military diversity programmes in new executive orders

A federal court worker and influencer has expressed her outrage towards Donald Trump after having to return to the office

Federal worker and influencer outraged at Donald Trump after President ends remote work arrangements

Hamas has told Israel that at least eight out of the remaining 26 hostages to be released during the first phase of the truce are dead

'A huge blow': At least eight hostages tipped for release in ceasefire deal are dead, Hamas tells Israel

Tech shares have been hit by the shock rise of Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek

Tech shares tumble due to shock rise of Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek

VLADIMIR PUTIN and Kim Jong Un with defence agreements  during Putin's visit to North Korea in  2024.

North Korean troops fighting 'like something out of WW2' as soldiers opt to 'blow themselves up' over capture in Ukraine

The United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing

United Airlines flight makes emergency landing after experiencing mid-air jolt - with at least six injured

Asturian coastline in stormy weather, Playa del Silencio, Cudillero, Asturias, Spain

British sailor missing in the Bay of Biscay as French airforce recover wrecked yacht adrift in Atlantic