GENEVA: A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said on Tuesday that he did not expect big outcomes from Biden’s first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We’re not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting’’, said the US official as Air Force One landed in Geneva ahead of the planned meeting on Wednesday. Biden flew in to Geneva at 4:16 pm (1416 GMT) on the last leg of his first foreign trip as president, after mending relations with Washington’s closest allies during G7 and Nato summits in Britain and Brussels.
He arrived in Geneva on the eve of the first meeting between US and Russian leaders since 2018, when Putin met Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump in Helsinki.
Biden was greeted on the Geneva Airport tarmac by Swiss President Guy Parmelin, flanked by the heads of the Geneva cantonal and city authorities and US diplomats based in the city.
After handshakes and a few brief exchanges, he climbed into his armoured limousine known as “The Beast” and was whisked off to the five-star Intercontinental Hotel, just a mile (1.6 kilometres) away.
Switzerland has launched a massive security operation to ensure the safety of Biden, Putin and their large entourages, deploying around 4,000 police, troops and security personnel to guard the summit from all angles. The summit venue, the La Grange villa and its surrounding park, has been ringed with two kilometres of barbed wire-topped security fencing.
Several blocks around Biden’s hotel, near the United Nations’ European headquarters, were also blocked off with barbed-wire fencing. — Agencies
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