The US-Russia summit has always been a diplomatic move. The US president must follow a fine line as the world sees it. Biden was a long-time former Vice President and Senate foreign affairs expert. He has extensive diplomatic experience and appears to enjoy developing individual chemistry with world leaders.
We have a date and a location of meeting of Mr. Joe Biden and Mr. Vladimir Putin. The US-Russia summit under will take place in Geneva on June 16. Biden will meet with NATO and G7 members before sitting down with Putin. They hope that it will improve relations and understanding between the two leaders.
But in reality, these talks appear to be failing. Because both leaders have exchanged verbal thorns amid mounting tensions in past months. But Antony Blinken said, Biden’s goal is a stable and predictable relationship with Russia.
When Biden and Putin meet, they have a lot to talk about. The short list of topics includes arms control, climate change, Russian involvement in Ukraine. Also the Russian cyber hacking activities, including the Solar Winds 2020 attack on the US government and private computer networks. Moreover, the attempted poisoning and imprisonment of Russian politician Alexei Navalny.
in July 2018, Trump and Putin held their only summit in Helsinki, Finland. Trump disagreed with Putin’s belief that Russia was not participating in the hacking of election despite the results from US intelligence to the contrary. These attacks overshadowed much of Trump’s presidency and led to investigations by special lawyer Robert Mueller and the disclosure of contacts between Trump campaign members and Russian citizens (although the investigation found no evidence of coordination).
During his campaign and presidency, Trump expressed admiration and sympathy for Putin, despite the fact that, after several delays, his administration continued to impose sanctions on Russia.
US imposing and waiving sanctions on Russia
Adding to the current tensions between the United States and Russia, Biden administration imposed new sanctions for the Solar Winds hack. These include new restrictions on transactions between US financial institutions and the Russian government. As well as sanctions against Russian businesses and the expulsion of some Russian diplomats to the United States.
If sanctions are a diplomatic stick, the Biden administration would lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany. It could help ease tensions between the United States and Russia.
Joe Biden has own way of diplomacy
The Biden administration’s rhetoric towards Russia is entirely different, though their actions don’t always fit the stronger words. This has led friends and political opponents to criticize the White House’s policies towards Russia. However, the Geneva summit will be one of the biggest personal tests of his political career.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse embarked Biden on Russian policy on several fronts.
“Are we rewarding Putin with a summit?” He said in a statement. “Putin imprisoned Alexei Navalny and his puppet Lukashenko hijacked a plane to arrest Roman Protasevich. Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who is afraid of his own people, we gave him the valuable Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legalized it.”
Read Also: Thousands of Russians joined fresh protests for Free Navalny