Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, for the summit with his US counterpart Joe Biden. Soon after, Joe Biden also arrived and the summit can therefore begin: at Villa La Grange, the nineteenth-century building overlooking Lake Geneva where the summit will be held, Swiss President Guy Parmellin welcomed the two presidents. Interviews scheduled for four to five hours; tense climate. The two presidents have numerous topics on the agenda, from arms control to cybercrime, from pandemics to human rights.
The protocol
A White House adviser last night explained to reporters the protocol agreed between the two sides and with the Swiss government, the hosts. Obviously, the details also matter. The first to arrive at Villa La Grange? Vladimir Putin, who usually likes to wait a long time and strategically shows up late. This time, however, he takes the field first: there has been no official explanation. In any case, Putin was expected at 1 pm, received by Guy Parmellin, president of the Swiss Confederation. Ten minutes later, Biden expected. Convenient and short space for a three-way photo in front of the reporters. Only Parmellin should speak.
From 13:35 the face to face between Putin and Biden
From 13.35 the face to face between the two leaders. An hour and a half is scheduled for this first phase. At 14.55 Biden and Putin will be joined by the rest of the delegation, led by their respective foreign ministers, Antony Blinken and Sergej Lavrov. Short break around 16. This, at least, the program: a few minutes late on the table. It resumes, again in the enlarged format, at 4.40 pm. There is no limit, but the meeting is expected to end around 19-19.30.
Not even the time for a coffee
The two teams will not share any convivial moments. There will not even be a moment to break the official, with a snack or a coffee. Everyone will do it on their own. But that is not all. After the meeting, the pantomime of the separate press conferences begins. Biden’s adviser said that there will be Putin’s first and the American president’s after, with only the presence of journalists accredited to the White House. No direct confrontation in front of the cameras therefore, as, instead, happened in 2018 in Helsinki, at the Trump-Putin summit.
The arguments on the table
According to the anticipations provided by the White House, today’s intense meeting could be divided into two parts. In the first, Biden will make it clear which are the “red lines” that Putin will no longer have to cross in the future. The list includes: interference in US or other allied elections; coverage of cyber attacks by hackers who, for example, sabotaged the servers of the Colonial Pipeline in May, undermining gas and oil supplies on the East Coast; a new military offensive in Donbass, the eastern region of Ukraine. Biden also said that he will “raise” the “Navalny case”.
The proposals of the United States
The second section of the confrontation will be “constructive”. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan insisted on promptly probing the Kremlin’s readiness to collaborate on crucial issues, breaking a possible Moscow-Beijing axis in the bud. The most important test is on gun control. On February 4, Biden agreed to extend the New Start, the Treaty that limits the proliferation of intercontinental range nuclear warheads, for another five years. But that agreement now covers only a segment of the destructive capacity of the two superpowers. For example, the missiles and defensive systems deployed in Europe remain outside. And most importantly, the new generation of super-tech weapons: space platforms, submarine drones, cyber forays and more. Russians and Americans are already talking to each other, but only on an exploratory level. Biden will propose to Putin to form groups of experts and start real negotiations.
Moscow: “It will not be a historic meeting”
Yet the first statements from Moscow lower the tone. “No”, today’s summit between Putin and Biden “cannot become historic and we cannot and should not expect any turning point”: said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, noting that relations between the US and Russia are tense. Tass reports it. Peskov, however, stated that “the very fact that the two presidents have decided to meet” and “to start talking openly about the existing problems is already a result”. “Even before starting, this summit has this positive result,” said the Kremlin spokesman.
June 16, 2021 (change June 16, 2021 | 13:30)
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