U.S. President Joe Biden wrapped up his first foreign trip as U.S. President, replacing his predecessor Donald Trump’s message, “America first”, with “America is back”, displaying America’s readiness to go back to the world stage. His trip ended with the Biden-Putin summit, during which the two countries’ leaders exchanged cordial words. But, with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks and election interference, Biden admitted building a constructive, stable and predictable relationship with Russia will be an arduous task, but insisted the United States is willing to search for areas in which the United States and Russia can cooperate.
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The highly-anticipated meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden ended just three hours after that historic handshake. During the meeting, Biden and Putin exchanged cordial words and plotted modest steps on arms control and diplomacy, but still ended with deep differences and disputes over various issues that need to be settled.
Biden, however, made it clear the tone of the meeting was positive.
U.S. President Joe Biden:
I must tell you, the tone of the entire meetings — I guess it was a total of four hours — was — was good, positive. There wasn’t any — any strident action taken. Where we disagreed — I disagreed, stated where it was. Where he disagreed, he stated.
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But, the two powerful leaders did reach an important agreement to return their chief diplomats to Moscow and Washington after they were expelled. But make no mistake, the agreement is hardly a relationship-changing one, as deep differences and disputes have yet to be dealt with.
The White House and the Kremlin had set low expectations for the meeting, and said the outcome very much hinges on whether the two leaders are willing to deal with deep differences and disputes between the two countries.
The U.S. President admitted it will take some time for the two countries to build a constructive and stable relationship.
U.S. President Joe Biden:
Relationship that has to be stable and predictable. And it should be able to — we should be able to cooperate where it’s in our mutual interests. And where we have differences, I wanted President Putin to understand why I say what I say.
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Asked if it is possible the two countries can indeed rebuild their relationship, Biden said it very much hinges on whether Putin is willing to change his behavior – take a hard line on Russian cyberattacks on American businesses and the U.S. government, and stop interfering in U.S. elections. Biden said the United States will resort to retaliatory measures, should Russia continue to harm the U.S.’ interests.
Time will tell if the two countries’ efforts to build a constructive relationship will bear fruit, as Biden considers that an arduous and herculean task.
Wrapping up his first eight-day foreign trip as U.S. President, Biden replaced his predecessor, Donald Trump’s message to the world: “America first”, with “America is back”. He made the rounds during his eight-day trip to strengthen ties between the United States and its steadfast European allies, illustrating to the country’s longtime foes, China and Russia, that America is no longer a lame duck, and has become more competitive. He also elicited support from the U.S.’ steadfast allies during his trip.
While Biden traveled all the way back to the White House after his first foreign trip as U.S. President, questions remain as to whether the U.S.’ steadfast allies would believe America is really not a lame duck anymore, and whether his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would curb his nation’s misdemeanours.
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