United States President Joe Biden on his first foreign trip will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva. The extremely predicted summit, which the US began pursuing in April, days before declaring sanctions on Moscow and expelling diplomats over the Russian hacking of US federal agencies , this will be Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin. It remarkably comes before Biden has met Chinese President Xi Jinping, underlining the constant significance and apparent threat of Moscow to Washington and its NATO allies even as the Biden administration continues to reorient US foreign policy towards Beijing in what many consider an evolving cold war. In March and early April, Putin combined tens of thousands of troops in seized Crimea and along Russia’s border with Ukraine and its two pro-Russian separatist regions. For a while, a war appeared to be looming until Biden called Putin on April 13 telling him to de-escalate the tensions and offering to meet in Geneva in an apparent signal to the Russian leader.
Biden recognizes Ukraine better than other US presidents. He visited the ex-Soviet nation six times. The Kremlin has long been concerned about NATO’s Aegis Ashore missile defence system in Romania and Poland, Russia’s Soviet-era satellites. The US claims the system is intended to avert a nuclear threat from Iran, but Moscow believes that the system may be advanced to shoot long-range Tomahawk missiles at Russia. Moscow is keen to conduct regular checks of the Aegis Ashore amenities, and will let NATO review its short-range Iskander missiles in Russia’s western most Baltic region of Kaliningrad. Analysts says that there are less chances of any advancement, Still, both sides are uncomfortable with the Cold War-era low in relations. While little is predictable in tangible steps, a covenant to redeploy diplomats, including the US and Russian ambassadors, who have been called back to their home countries, is considered one possible outcome.
Comments are closed.