US President Joe Biden is set to personally meet with world leaders again this year in the upcoming G7 summit. The White House confirmed this week that Biden will also be meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in June.
Biden will be meeting personally with Putin in Geneva, Switzerland on June 16, according to a statement by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Biden and Putin are expected to discuss a wide range of issues in an effort to bring back the stability and predictability of US-Russia relations. This will also be Biden’s first meeting with Putin since taking office in January and his first meeting with Putin as the new US President.
The summit with Putin will also take place a little after the G7 summit that will take place in Cornwall, the United Kingdom. Biden proposed meeting with Putin in a summit back in April during a phone conversation. The proposal came as his administration has prepared to impose sanctions on Russian officials for the second time in a span of three months.
Earlier this week, White House officials said that they were still working on the details of the upcoming meeting. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also discussed the meeting when he met with his Russian counterpart Nikolay Patrushev.
Biden’s relations with Russia have been rocky since taking office. The US leader has often criticized Russian officials for several instances, including the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, its public acknowledgment of offering bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, as well as the SolarWinds and election interference. Back in March, Biden expelled 10 Russian diplomats and sanctioning companies and individuals that were involved in the SolarWinds hacking and the election interference.
In other news, the Biden administration has warned UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to uphold the Good Friday Agreement following Foreign Minister Simon Coveney’s meeting with Sullivan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Both Sullivan and Blinken have urged the UK to uphold the Northern Ireland Protocol, one of the provisions in the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union that came into effect earlier this year.
Both the US and Ireland say the Northern Ireland Protocol would maintain the Good Friday Agreement to ensure peace and prosperity in the region.