N. P. Upadhyaya, Kathmandu: The stage is set for a summit meet in between the US President Joe Biden and the Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16, 2021, in Geneva.
The leaders of the two super powers in their own rights are meeting in Swiss capital with not so warm ties at the moment in between the two.
The two leaders in the recent days have pounced upon each other from two different places.
If Putin is meeting President Biden close on the heels of his most daring interview that he granted to the NBC news on June 12 wherein he point blank told the interviewer that the Russia-US ties were at an all-time low.
During the course of the interview, Putin dismissed several allegations that the US of late has hurled against Russia and its President-Vladimir Putin.
Not very surprisingly then, President Biden too accepted that the US ties with the Russian had touched a new low.
Biden agreed to Putin’s evaluation of the current state of US-Russia ties.
Vladimir Putin as observers note that he wishes the “US to recognize Russian Federation as a world power at par with the US and behave accordingly”.
Putin hints to the US President that the Russian Federation is the heir apparent to the former Soviet Union-the USSR and thus continues to be a world power.
With so many grievances, President Biden is all prepared to meet President Putin whom early this year he said that he was a “killer”.
This explains the tensed relations in between the US and the Russian Federation led by President Putin.
Very interestingly, during the interview with the NBC Television network, Putin did not hide his “excellent ties” with President Donald Trump.
Having said all these, the two world leaders are meeting in Geneva soon.
Lucian Kim and Michele Kelemen for the npr news dated June 14, 2021, write that while, on the one hand, the new US administration under Joe Biden wants a more stable and predictable relationship with Russia then on the other, the Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to show that his country is taken seriously as a world power.
“This is the backdrop for the first summit between the US and Russian presidents, which will take place in Geneva on June 16 ”, thus sums up Lucian Kim and Michele Kelemen in their fresh write up titled “5 things to watch art the Biden-Putin Summit”.
Observers say that the US relations with the Russians took a nose dive when Kremlin supported a “ a brutal crackdown” (?) on protesters in Belarus (as per the US), and for jailing of a leading opposition figure in Russia and above all the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and also interfering in the US elections in the recent past.
International media sources say that the men around President Putin believe that Joe Biden is tougher than what President Trump had been for Russia and President Putin-both at the personal and official level.
President Biden is meeting Putin close on the heels of the G7 leaders Cornwall meet wherein all the attending leaders made sharp comments against China.
At the conclusion of the three day Cornwall Summit, the G7 leaders issued a joint statement wherein they have jointly urged China to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
The statement also touches upon those issues to which China even doesn’t like to listen let alone admit.
The G7 leaders highlighted issues which included abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority group and the crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.
A Chinese embassy based in London rebuked the joint statement saying as “baseless accusations”.
Kevin Liptak for the CNN dated June 15 reports that President Biden has arrived in Geneva.
The US President Biden would meet Putin at 1 p.m. CET, 7 a.m. ET, at the lakeside villa where the summit is occurring.
Vladimir Putin will arrive to the villa first and both will be greeted by the Swiss President before posing for a photo.
How the Geneva meet goes with President Biden and Putin will be watched globally.
That’s all.