OTTAWA, June 15. /TASS/. The very fact of a summit being held between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American leader Joe Biden in Geneva can already be viewed as a success since it indicates readiness for dialogue and will lay the foundation for new contacts. This opinion was expressed by political scientist, professor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, Piotr Dutkiewicz who is the leading Canadian expert on Russia and is one of the founders and permanent members of the international Valdai discussion club in a conversation with a TASS correspondent on Tuesday.
"Many Russian and Western experts have very modest expectations on the outcome of the upcoming Putin’s-Biden meeting. They point to the lack of draft documents to be signed […] and a rather unclear meeting’s agenda. I am not sharing that pessimism. US-Russia relations are at the lowest point in a decade so their upcoming meeting itself is already a success as it shows a willingness for a dialogue," he said.
The expert thinks that publicly Biden will use the existing US narrative on the necessity of containing Russia, while Putin will talk about the need to improve US-Russian relations "in the context of key global challenges." The expert thinks that a frank discussion behind closed doors will help establish "beachheads for further contacts." According to him, the measure of success of their meeting will be in a "number of policy areas that they will be discussing. At that high level they will have a follow up."
The political scientist thinks that the two leaders may "discuss a road map and priorities of re-establishing working groups of experts to stop the current process of erosion of the arms control and non-proliferation mechanism." He explained that the recent extension of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) "is a solid, good start in that direction." Additionally, Putin and Biden may discuss cooperation on fighting the climate change and the novel coronavirus pandemic.
At the same time, the expert thinks that in spite of the top-level summit, the confrontation process between Russia and the US will continue at "full swing," since it "has much deeper political economy roots." However, he thinks that "such meetings can prevent it from being too costly and exhaustive for both countries."
As the Kremlin and the White House reported earlier, the meeting of Putin and Biden will take place on June 16 in Geneva. According to the press service of the Russian head of state, the two leaders plan to discuss the conditions and prospects for further fostering Russian-US relations, strategic stability matters as well as pressing issues on the international agenda, which include cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and regulating regional conflicts. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Biden since the US president took office.