President Joe Biden will meet face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time as president in June, as the two leaders seek to manage escalating tensions in the first months of the new administration.
The Geneva summit will come during Biden’s first overseas trip as president, when he’ll visit Britain for a meeting with the Group of Seven leaders and attend a NATO summit.
Biden first proposed a summit in a call with Putin in April, before his administration imposed fresh sanctions against Russian officials for the second time.
White House officials said earlier this week that they were ironing out details of the summit. National security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed details of the meeting when he met with his Russian counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev.
Ties have been strained between the two countries after the massive Russian cyberattack on American institutions, the arrest and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a major military buildup along the border with Western-backed Ukraine.
Biden is likely to warn Putin to stay out of American elections and to signal that he will not hesitate to retaliate against future Kremlin steps. Putin is likely to use the meeting to showcase his durable place of power on the world stage and to feel out Biden’s strength as a geopolitical adversary.
The two men previously met when Biden was vice president under former President Barack Obama.
