Symbolic introduction to intensive diplomatic work between Biden, Putin
WASHINGTON, USA (North Press) – The first summit between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, concluded today, on Wednesday, in the Swiss city of Geneva, after a series of diplomatic efforts to make this summit a success at a time of complex relations between Moscow and Washington.
In Washington, Biden’s diplomatic tone with Putin was met with an attack from the Republican Party, with Fox News saying Biden was soft on Putin and had no tougher or more assertive tone than former President Donald Trump’s on Putin.
Both Presidents, Biden and Putin described the bilateral talks as constructive and diplomatic, stressing that they were free from any hostile tone even on the most contentious issues.
The two sides talked about an agreement to return the ambassadors of the two countries to their positions and to return the diplomats who were expelled by both Washington and Moscow in the recent period.
At the end of the summit, President Putin indicated that Biden did not invite him to the White House, nor did he invite Biden to the Kremlin, and he expected that this step would be taken later, when the appropriate time comes.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Ukrainian issue, the possibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Russian military build-up on the border with Ukraine are the most sensitive and pending files between the two countries, in addition to the cyberattacks that targeted American facilities from inside Russia.
For his part, President Putin said, Russia had given Washington full information about the alleged cyberattack, but Washington had not responded.
According to Los Angeles Times, the Syrian and Iranian issues, in addition to ensuring the stability of Afghanistan after the US withdrawal, were among the positive things that the two countries can work on together.
Responding to journalists’ question about Alexei Navalni issue and human rights violations in Russia, Putin said the US is the biggest violator of human rights inside US and abroad, specifically in countries such as Afghanistan, where a single American bomb kills dozens of innocent people and therefore it has no right to discuss this issue with Moscow.
Putin added, what happened on January 6 of the storming of the US Congress and the violent confrontation by the police towards the intruders of Congress confirms that what is happening in the US is unfortunate, therefore Moscow takes permanent security precautions to avoid what happened in the US.
In this regard, Biden said, President Putin’s approach to human rights and comparing what happened in Congress to a totalitarian state’s suppression of freedoms is “very ridiculous.”
On Wednesday, a senior official of President Biden’s administration told reporters, he did not expect immediate results of the summit, which Joe Biden confirmed by telling the reporters at the conclusion of the summit that he did not know whether he had confidence in the ability of Putin and Russia to change hostile behavior towards the US or not, but he would wait and watch the results in the coming months.