Today in Geneva, an orchestrated Presidential Summit, between U.S. President Joe Biden and the Soviet Union President Vladimir Putin, was arranged and currently underway in Geneva Switzerland. The grand ceremonies and pageantry of these global powers were on full display. This historic meeting and the resulting discussions come at a time when the relationship between these nations is strained and at a major crossroad, especially given the campaign promises of Joe Biden who vowed to confront and put the antics and actions of Putin and Russia in check.
Major tensions have been escalating over the years to a potential return of the former “Cold War” or even worse, the potential of a future nuclear war which would cause catastrophic loss of property and lives.
The key matters and agenda issues for the day shall involve:
1. Russia’s interference in the U.S. elections over the years;
2. Russia’s involvement and support of cyber-hacking in the U.S. businesses and government;
3. Russian oil and pipeline activities;
4. Russian Militarization of the Ukrain;
5. Human Rights concerns and Russia’s imprisonment of Alexi Navalny;
6. The potential exchange of Russian and U.S. citizens held captive in the respective countries;
7. Nuclear Stability and Arms Control.
In recent years, Putin has been cold, dismissive, and manipulative, especially in his handling with the former U.S. President, Donald Trump. Putin was also dismissive of former President Barack Obama. Joe Biden has publicly reported that he thinks that Putin is a killer. These were not quite words of diplomacy, however, President Biden did personally extend the diplomatic request an invitation to meet for open lines of communications. Biden reiterated to Putin today that “it is better to meet face to face.” Putin initiated the comment that “we have a lot of issues accumulated and I hope this meeting will be productive.” This is the fifth U.S. President that Putin has met and had Summit meetings. We will see if Biden and Putin can stop the beef or escalate the global conflict.
