Now that the much-hyped Joe Biden-Vladimir Putin summit has come and gone, what should we make of it? Here’s my quick take. I think the meeting went reasonably well, and Biden did a decent job. Biden commented that "I did what I came to do," and he's right. On areas of disagreement with Russia (human rights, cyberattacks), he defended the U.S. and pushed back against Putin. Yet Biden also tried to find issues of common interest that both Russia and the U.S. might cooperate on (rules of the road for cyber, reinstating ambassadors, and arms control). Frankly, his performance in Geneva is as expected. After all, his preferred approach to diplomacy, even when interacting with challengers and rivals, balances a mixture of cooperation and confrontation. The Geneva summit showed how this could be applied to Russia. Going forward, I suspect Biden will try to apply a similar approach in his administration’s diplomacy with China,
The Biden-Putin Summit
The Biden-Putin Summit
The Biden-Putin Summit
Now that the much-hyped Joe Biden-Vladimir Putin summit has come and gone, what should we make of it? Here’s my quick take. I think the meeting went reasonably well, and Biden did a decent job. Biden commented that "I did what I came to do," and he's right. On areas of disagreement with Russia (human rights, cyberattacks), he defended the U.S. and pushed back against Putin. Yet Biden also tried to find issues of common interest that both Russia and the U.S. might cooperate on (rules of the road for cyber, reinstating ambassadors, and arms control). Frankly, his performance in Geneva is as expected. After all, his preferred approach to diplomacy, even when interacting with challengers and rivals, balances a mixture of cooperation and confrontation. The Geneva summit showed how this could be applied to Russia. Going forward, I suspect Biden will try to apply a similar approach in his administration’s diplomacy with China,