Biden and Putin shake hands, kicking off Geneva summit

US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin shake hands in Geneva after standing with their host, Swiss President Guy Parmelin, at the start of their first summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lands in Geneva for summit with Biden

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plane lands in Geneva where he is meeting US President Joe Biden at a tense summit, where ghosts of the Cold War will hover over modern-day US concerns about Russian cyber attacks and what the White House sees as a dangerous authoritarian drift.

The two men greeted each other after standing with their host, Swiss President Guy Parmelin, outside the La Grange villa overlooking Lake Geneva, where they are set to meet for up to five hours — with cyber-attacks, election meddling and rights abuses among the many contentious issues on the agenda.

Sitting in the plush villa’s renowned library, on either side of a globe and with their respective flags behind them, the two leaders exchanged a few cordial remarks before the accompanying journalists were asked to leave.

Putin thanked Biden “for your initiative to meet today.”

“The US and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting,” he said, adding: “I hope that our meeting will be productive.”

Biden, who not only took the initiative for the summit itself but also for that first handshake, smiled and said: “It is always better to meet face to face”.

Before the discussions began, Parmelin told the pair that it was “an honour and a pleasure for Switzerland to host you here for this summit, and in accordance with its tradition of good offices, promote dialogue and mutual understanding.”