Putin-Biden summit unlikely to achieve “significant progress” — expert .

GENEVA, June 14 — The upcoming meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin here is a manifestation of sharply deteriorating bilateral ties, and aims to prevent further worsening, thus it should be viewed with low expectations, a senior foreign policy expert has said.
“I think that one has to look to the summit between Putin and Biden with relatively low expectations,” said Charles Kupchan, professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Biden is currently in Europe on his first foreign trip since he was sworn into office. He is scheduled to meet Group 7 (G7) leaders and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, and co-host a summit with the European Union, before speaking in Geneva with Putin on Wednesday for a more “stable, predictable” U.S.-Russia relationship.
“The summit is a product of a sharp deterioration in the relationship during Biden’s first few months in office. We saw an exchange of sanctions, expulsion of diplomats … Things seemed to be on a downward spiral,” Kupchan, also former special assistant to the president on national security affairs from 2014 to 2017, told Xinhua in a recent virtual interview.
“So the backdrop to the summit is not one of forward momentum but one of concern about trying to prevent the relationship from getting worse,” noted the Washington-based expert.
“The discussion (between Putin and Biden) will be narrowly focused on U.S.-Russian relations. They will agree to disagree on a set of difficult issues,” he said.
“This is not a dialogue that is about taking the next step in global governance. It’s not a dialogue about a sudden reset in U.S.-Russia relations,” Kupchan added.
“I think it’s really about preventing a further deterioration in the relationship and trying to move toward strategic stability and a relationship more predictable and less toxic, but not a relationship that would constitute strong cooperation,” he stressed.
As for the possibility of lifting Western sanctions on Russia, the expert does not believe that the sanctions are about to be lifted on Russia.
“It is unlikely that there will be any significant progress on the most difficult issues that divide Russia and the United States,” including Ukraine, human rights, Russian interference in Western elections, Russia’s provocative military actions, Russian sponsorship of hacking into U.S. computers,” he stressed.
“At the same time, it may be possible for Biden and Putin to compartmentalize their differences, and to have a constructive discussion about issues where they may find some common ground. Those issues would include strategic stability, arms control, more military transparency to prevent mishaps, climate change, pandemic, recovery, and future planning against pandemics, perhaps some cooperation on the issues related to the Arctic,” said the scholar.
“I think if they can set aside areas of sharp differences and identify areas where U.S. interests overlap with Russian interests, they may have a constructive discussion, but there is no question it will be a contentious and difficult conversation,” said the professor. “Biden does not have any of (former U.S. President Donald) Trump’s affection for Vladimir Putin.”
For the expert, the future of global governance needs to be built on inclusive dialogues.
Kupchan called on the United States, Russia, China, and other major powers to “work together to pursue a world that is more effective in meeting the challenges of global governance because we do live in a world today in which the demand for global governance is very high, (and) the supply of global governance is falling short.”
“When it comes to the big issues of the day — climate change, global health, nuclear non-proliferation, cybersecurity, extremism — major countries of the world need to work together,” the expert noted. “Given globalization and global inter-dependence, the need for broad cooperation is going up, not down.” Xinhua