In the spotlight: the Biden-Poutine meeting in Geneva

Audio 04:39

President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive to meet at Villa la Grange, Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland.

AP - Patrick Semansky

By: Guillaume Naudin Follow

10 mins

Publicity

This meeting will last four to five hours and takes place in a villa which had already hosted the first Reagan-Gorbachev meeting in 1985. It is a reduced format: heads of state and foreign ministers, which is the guarantee of 'a fairly direct dialogue. However, writes the

Washington Post

, there is not much to expect from this summit. Moreover, the newspaper stresses that there will be no joint press conference at the end, which shows that the points of agreement are not numerous and that the objective is not to stage a resetting of relations like with Barack Obama or a form of understanding like with Donald Trump.

The angry topics are well known: cyber attacks, Russian interference in US elections, human rights and Ukraine, and they shouldn't change.

But the goal, on both sides, is to come up with a relationship that, if not good, would be stable and predictable.

For the Russian specialist in international relations Maxim Soutchkov, interviewed by the Swiss daily

Le Temps

, the United States wants Russia not to interfere too much in its rivalry with China.

China is the elephant in the room of this meeting. 

Le Soir

de Bruxelles interviewed another specialist in international relations, this one American, Robert Kaplan. For him, this summit is an opportunity for Russia to be treated as an equal with the United States, but also to send a message to China whose economic and political expansionism is leading it to establish itself in countries close to Russia.

That, the

Global Times

received well.

In an article in the form of an editorial, the communications organ of the Chinese Communist Party praised the strength of the ties between Moscow and Beijing.

It is based in particular on an interview given before the summit by Vladimir Putin to the American channel NBC in which the Russian leader explains that relations with China are at a level of unrivaled confidence and cooperation in all fields and that he is very satisfied with the partnership with his neighbor. 

Statements much appreciated in Beijing where the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted by the

Global Times

, declared: " 

China and Russia are united like mountains and their friendship is indestructible

 ".

We stay in Asia, but we go to Japan

The country, not ahead of vaccination, is preparing to open injections to 18-64 year olds. All this takes place a few weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, for which we learn that a tonnage of 10,000 spectators, all Japanese, could be admitted into the stadiums. But above all, the

Japan Times

tells us that the organizers are working on the third version of the rules related to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected that athletes will undergo daily saliva tests, which if tested positive, will lead to PCR testing. Among the rules put in place, there will also be the obligation to wear the mask in several circumstances including the awarding of medals. 

Failure to comply with the rules could lead to a ban on participating in the events, to fines the amount of which is not specified, a withdrawal of accreditation, or even outright expulsion from Japanese territory. 

The Australian newspaper

The Australian

also notes that athletes are asked to return to their country at the end of their events without waiting for the end of the Games.

The Australian is

worried about swimmers, swimming is a very important sport for the country, with the events concentrated in the first week, leaving swimmers the rumored opportunity to party for the second week. Recall that a few days ago, the Japanese press announced that, as is traditional, tens of thousands of condoms would be distributed in the Olympic village, but that the organizers asked, for health reasons, that they not be not used on site, but on return home. 

Sport again, after the victory of France against Germany for the first match of the two teams at the Euro. 

Die Welt

leaves plenty of room for the match and its side, and we let you discover the German disappointment. But it is recommended to read the analysis of the meeting in

Le Soir

de Bruxelles. The title soberly indicates that France is assuming its favorite status, a status also claimed by Belgium. We can read there that the German possession was sterile and that without always being brilliant, the French were compact and lethal defensively. And that they are even perhaps even stronger, more compact and more mature than three years ago, when France beat Belgium in the semi-final of the Russian World Cup in one match than part of Belgium. obviously still has not forgotten and digested.

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