As naturally expected, a new leader seeks alliances and collaborations with other influential leaders and persons. This tradition has been in play for ages, and numerous world leaders have utilized it to amassing a lot of power for themselves and strengthening their leadership roles. Such alliances and friendship agreements were mainly used to gain allies for wars but have grown to include economic and social benefits. Hence no leader can survive without working together with other powerful people or influencers.
As a newly elected leader, United States of America (US) president Joe Biden has been making strides in strengthening relations with other states’ leaders. Former US President Donald Trump came into power to improve ties with Russia. Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia has become one of the powerful countries in the world, and its economy has grown to greater heights. The developments were also witnessed when it successfully held the 2018 Soccer FIFA World Cup Tournament, and the Russian team performed so well by reaching the quarter-finals.
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The relations between the US and Russia had been rusty as these superpowers operate on different political ideologies and policies, and they have different allies across the globe. Tensions between these two states were also in security, and reports have been made that they spy on each other. Another major cause of tension was nuclear power and weapons, and debates on which nation has the best military services and secret services have been rampant on internet platforms. The Federal Security Service (formerly KBG), Investigative Committee of Russia, and the Foreign Intelligence of the Russian government have been consistently compared to the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence, and Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US. This denotes that these countries might always compete in becoming the best in security, military services, nuclear power, and technology. The friction between the two countries led to a threat by the US to impose sanctions on Russia [Source].
However, the new US president Biden seems like he wants to improve the US-Russian relations after assuming the presidential office of Donald Trump. This is a good follow up to ‘The New Atlantic Charter of 2021’ between Biden and the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which saw the US strengthening relations with the UK to support each other in various sectors such as science and technology, democracy, human right and multilateralism, defense and security. Russia has also entered into agreements with China and India to enhance their science research programs and various developments.
The 2021 Geneva meeting between Biden and Putin is the first meeting since Biden took the US reigns from Trump. According to news reports from Russia, Putin was impressed by Biden in their meeting. He further explained that he wishes to extend the talks to the American side to establish a common ground to start working together. He also cited that Biden is a skilled leader who knows what he wants to achieve and has laid his objectives. The Russian president disagreed with the ‘media reports image’ of Biden, who has been regarded as clueless in his conduct. Putin argued that the current US president portrayal in the Russian and American media is falsehood being propagated by the media personnel as Biden was a professional [Source].
In his address to the American media after the Geneva meeting, Biden also noted that the meeting was held in good spirit. Both leaders concur that there is a slight green light in improving their working relations. However, Biden cited that he was honest to bring up all the significant issues to do with ‘fundamental human rights and democracy, and outlined that the American DNA is made up of heated concern over abuse of human rights, freedom of speech, and instilling democracy across the globe. In a recorded press conference address [Source], Biden says “his agenda is to re-establish alliances” with all the world leaders, and his agenda “is not against Russia.” He contended after 6 months to two years; they will find out if there is any need to put measures towards Washington and Moscow relations. Biden emphasized meeting face-to-face to avoid misrepresentation, and it was over 4 hours of discussion with Putin [Source].
Both leaders agreed to stay away from any war and to put in place control measures on the weapons reserves in countries. They also decided to work together on cybersecurity issues and specific individuals’ imprisonments and ensure that Iran does not get more nuclear weapons.
Although it was visible that many differences need to be addressed between the US and Russia, this meeting seems fruitful as the leaders were able to agree on working together on specific issues. Despite the wide range of concerns that still need to be ironed out, these baby steps towards good US-Russian relations are commendable, especially in this coronavirus pandemic which needs countries to work together in fighting the covid-19 virus.
