I will meet Putin soon, but Biden’s performance is full of emotions.
■ Observer
The time of the meeting was arranged after Biden's nearly a week-long European series of interactions, which was quite interesting.
On June 16, Russian President Putin and US President Biden will meet in Geneva.
This meeting is not only the highest level of interaction between the two countries since the new US government took office, but also the first meeting between the two heads of state in the past three years.
In fact, from the arrangement of the time and place for the meeting between the US and Russian heads of state, we can see the basic considerations of both sides, especially the US.
The time of the meeting was arranged after Biden's European series of interactions lasting for nearly a week. It was quite interesting. It represented the European allies in responding to Russia's so-called "threat" posture and had a strong sense of routine.
The choice of the location of the "Publishing Meeting" in Geneva, Switzerland by the two parties also sent some clear signals.
In 1985, the then leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States held their first meeting in Geneva, and then promoted the signing of the Intermediate-Range-Range Treaty.
In addition, Switzerland is a neutral country, Geneva is the seat of many international organizations and an international city. Choosing this place to hold meetings undoubtedly fully reflects the equivalence and balance between the United States and Russia and the so-called "international influence" of this meeting.
After the time and location of the meeting were determined, while preparing for the meeting, the United States and Russia also began to release strong signals to the outside world almost simultaneously. This reflects the complexity of US-Russia relations.
As far as the United States is concerned, its attitude towards Russia has a certain degree of duality: on the one hand, it wants to exaggerate Russia’s threats by making strong calls to Russia and signal that the United States wants to "defend" its European allies, thereby strengthening transatlantic relations; on the other hand, it hopes. Carry out necessary cooperation with Russia in certain areas.
For Russia, facing the Biden administration, which is extremely good at setting agendas, it certainly has the motivation to clarify its own strategic bottom line once again, emphasizing the key significance of its own participation in strategic stability, and at the same time warning the United States and NATO not to make threats to Russia’s geopolitics. Security decision.
Of course, the Biden administration still has plans for this meeting.
Although this U.S. government is hailed as the first U.S. government that did not hold any unrealistic expectations for easing U.S.-Russian relations since the beginning of the Cold War, it is entirely possible that the Biden administration may reach a compromise with Moscow. transaction.
This is the so-called "predictable" stable relationship or stable state that Biden and his team have mentioned many times recently.
The word "predictable" in their words probably means two things.
First, in order to unite or intimidate European allies, it is necessary to play up Russia's "threat" and maintain some sanctions; the other is to further promote strategic and stable cooperation that is beneficial to the United States, and some easing moves against Russia can be considered, such as loosening the target. Sanctions for the Beixi-2 project.
But no matter what, the United States is too wishful thinking in its Russian policy.
After the end of the Cold War, the structural contradictions between the United States and Russia have not been resolved, but have continued to intensify.
And Biden's series of pressure on Russia after he took office also proved that the current US-Russian relationship has reached the lowest point since the end of the Cold War.
In this situation, if one party has too high expectations for the meeting, it may be further contradictory due to certain key issues during the meeting.
□Diao Daming (Researcher of National Institute of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China)