Biden's first international trip
President Biden attends the G-7, NATO and US-EU summits.
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Biden-Putin call ushers in new phase of diplomacy
Russia was again urged to ease its military buildup near Ukraine ahead of a pivotal month of talks.
President Joe Biden warned President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that continuing Russia’s aggressive military buildup on the border with Ukraine could force NATO to move more troops into eastern Europe and reiterated any further violation of its territory would exact “serious costs and consequences,” administration officials said.
But they also expressed hope that more formal “strategic stability talks” between Washington and Moscow, which are set for January on a myriad of issues, could lead to a path out of the current crisis.
“President Biden laid out two aspects of the U.S. approach that will really depend on Russia’s actions in the period ahead,” a senior administration official told reporters after the afternoon call Washington time. “One is a path of diplomacy leading toward a declaration of the situation and the other is a path that is more focused on deterrence, including serious costs and consequences should Russia choose to proceed with a further invasion of Ukraine.”
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Biden warns Putin on call against Ukraine invasion
The highly anticipated conversation between the American president and his Russian counterpart lasted just over two hours.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States and European allies would join together to impose “strong” economic penalties and other punitive actions on Russia should it mount an invasion of Ukraine.
In a highly anticipated secure video call, Biden “voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European Allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the U.S. and our Allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation,”according to a White House readout.
Biden also “reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy,” the White House said. The two leaders “tasked their teams to follow up, and the U.S. will do so in close coordination with allies and partners.”
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Washington farewells Angela Merkel
Germany’s long-serving chancellor is proud of protecting democracy — and worried about the future as she bids farewell to her fourth and final American president.
Don’t call it a farewell tour. But also don’t ask any hard questions about Russia or China.
Angela Merkel came to Washington this week as the undisputed political queen of Europe, and to firm up what she called the “framework conditions” for democracy.
Merkel stuck to her comfort zone of stabilizing, general talk. “Democratic institutions have to be nurtured,” she said accepting her Doctor of Humane Letters from Johns Hopkins University. “If these institutions are under permanent attack and put into question, democracy will not work.”
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German-French overture to Putin splits European Union
The initiative proposes a summit with Russian leader but also threatens new economic sanctions.
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Fiona Hill: We need to see if Biden-Putin meeting leads to 'serious cyber talks'
The former Russia adviser to President Donald Trump stressed the significance of future talks about cybersecurity.
Fiona Hill, former Russia adviser to President Donald Trump, said Sunday she is eager to see whether last week's meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will lead to "serious cyber talks."
When asked if the meeting between the two leaders was worth it, Hill said "we'll have to see" what comes next. Hill spoke about possible plans for strategic stability talks as the two countries grapple with nuclear weapons, but stressed the significance of future talks about cybersecurity.
"The main problem is really in cyber," Hill said on NBC News' "Meet the Press." "And that's where we're going have to see whether we're able to actually sit down and have some serious cyber talks. Not just at the working level, but something that takes it up to try to reach some kind of agreement."
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After Biden-Putin, will Russian spies retreat to shadows?
High-profile cases on EU soil have posed big problems for governments.
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Can Biden's foreign policy really deliver for the middle class?
The president returned home from a week of international summits with momentum, but turning that into direct benefits for American workers is another matter.
Joe Biden’s promise of a foreign policy that works for America’s middle class boils down to this: making the global economy fairer for American workers.
Beyond that it gets fuzzy, quickly.
After Biden’s week-long trip to Europe, the questions remain: what’s in it for Scranton, Pennsylvania? And what momentum can diplomatic success add to Biden’s agenda in Congress?
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Sullivan rejects argument U.S. gained little in Biden-Putin summit
“I just don’t buy the argument which says this was not worth it for the United States," Sullivan said on CNN.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday pushed back strongly against the argument that the U.S. has little to show for the highly anticipated summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held earlier this week.
“I just don’t buy the argument which says this was not worth it for the United States," Sullivan said on CNN. "As President Biden himself said, he did what he came to do and I think America’s come out better for it.”
Both Biden and Putin described their meeting as amicable and constructive, which critics have seized upon to further fuel the argument that Biden gave Putin a big win by meeting face-to-face so early in his administration.
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Biden-Putin summit gives U.S. allies hope of better Russia ties
The rest of the West counts on the American president to reset relations with Moscow.
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Opinion | How Biden Followed in Trump’s Footsteps in Europe
On China, Trump’s wrenching shift in the U.S approach is now getting the ultimate tribute of broad acceptance.
A key storyline of President Joe Biden’s overseas trip was how different Biden was from President Donald Trump, and indeed he was—except in one crucial area.
Biden’s hawkishness on China, which figured prominently during the trip, was a reflection of how fundamentally Trump changed our posture toward Beijing.
It is the ultimate victory for a politician if he doesn’t just reorient his own party, but the other party—Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher both did this, producing more moderate Democratic and Labor leaders in Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, respectively.
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Biden's vow of digital reprisals against Russia draws skepticism
Lawmakers and experts say Biden's message of off-limits industries and plans for consultations may carry little weight in Russia.
President Joe Biden's threat to respond in kind to future cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure by Russia is already prompting skepticism that it will rein in Moscow’s malign behavior in cyberspace.
Biden said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Geneva of 16 sectors that were "off-limits" to digital assault — a nod to the list compiled by the Homeland Security Department’s cyber wing.
"I pointed out to him we have significant cyber capability, and he knows it. He doesn't know exactly what it is, but it's significant," Biden told reporters. "If, in fact, they violate these basic norms, we will respond."
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Biden to Putin: Help me help you
In a summit of self-interest, the U.S. president tried to make Putin understand that it's in Russia’s interest to play nice with the United States.
More than once on Wednesday, as President Joe Biden described his meeting with Vladimir Putin, he tried to make it sound like he was doing the Russian leader a favor by simply giving him some good advice.
America has significant cyber capabilities, Biden pointed out. Surely, Putin wouldn’t want to do anything on the cyber front to make his country the recipient of U.S. wrath. Does Putin really want to improve Russia’s trade status like he says? Maybe he shouldn’t detain American businesspeople. And what happens if Putin and his country keep interfering in the elections of other countries? “His credibility worldwide shrinks,” Biden said.
Of course, Biden’s message also could be read as a series of semi-veiled threats to the long-ruling Russian autocrat. Biden, however, insisted that while it was not a “kumbaya” meeting, there “were no threats” and that what he was saying wasn’t simply about what works best for America.
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Biden gets heated during post-Putin press conference
The flare-up came after a reporter asked why he thought the Russian leader would alter his provocative behavior following their high-profile meeting in Geneva.
President Joe Biden conceded that he’d lost his composure on Wednesday toward the end of his post-summit debriefing with reporters in Geneva. And though he later apologized for being a “wise guy” with a reporter, he continued to attack members of the media for their negativity, before heading back to the United States.
The flare-up came after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins shouted a question to Biden asking why he was optimistic that Russian President Vladimir Putin would alter his provocative behavior following their high-profile meeting on Wednesday.
“Why are you so confident he’ll change his behavior, Mr. President?” Collins asked as Biden was walking off the stage after his outdoors news conference.
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Biden says he told Putin U.S. will hack back against future Russian cyberattacks
Lawmakers had called for Biden to get tough with Putin during their summit.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he warned his Russian counterpart that the U.S. would use offensive cyber operations in the future unless the Kremlin clamps down on cyber strikes against the U.S., including ransomware attacks and election interference.
"He knows there are consequences," Biden told reporters in Geneva following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "He knows I will take action.”
Biden later said he pointed out to Putin that the U.S. has “significant cyber capability.”
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Biden derides Putin’s ‘ridiculous’ whataboutism
Putin brought up Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 riots when pressed about human rights abuses.
President Joe Biden flatly rejected on Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to deflect from Russia’s treatment of human rights by pointing out America’s perceived shortcomings at home and abroad.
Following an hourslong meeting with Biden, Putin dodged a question about Russia’s jailing and unsparing treatment of political dissidents by pointing to the months of unrest last summer in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
“What we saw was disorder, destruction [and] violations of the law,” Putin said. “We feel sympathy for the United States of America, but we don’t want that to happen on our territory. We’re doing our utmost in order to not allow it to happen.”
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Biden gifts Putin custom aviators at the leaders’ Geneva summit
The shades were accompanied by a glass bison, a symbol of “strength, unity, resilience.”
Vladimir Putin is leaving Wednesday’s summit with his own pair of custom aviators, a gift from President Joe Biden that hearkens back to the later days of the Cold War era — back when Randolph USA partnered with the U.S. military to produce the HGU-4/P Aviator sunglasses for fighter pilots.
Putin and Biden met for roughly four hours, with breaks, on Wednesday. Biden was clear in his post-meeting news conference that he does not consider his relationship with the Russian leader to be one of friendship, but rather one of “pure business." This marked a departure from his predecessor, Donald Trump, who some say ingratiated himself with the Russian leader too much.
The aviators Biden gifted to Putin were manufactured by Randolph, which is based in Massachusetts. Since partnering with the U.S. military in 1978, the company has continued to provide the U.S. forces, along with its NATO allies, with aviators. Notably, NATO was partly formed in 1949 in response to the threat of what was then the Soviet Union.
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Without specifics, Putin says U.S.-Russia reached an agreement to consult on cybersecurity
"As far as cybersecurity is concerned, we agreed that we would begin consultations on that issue," the Russian president said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said his country and the United States had agreed to enter into "consultations" on cybersecurity following his summit with President Joe Biden.
"As far as cybersecurity is concerned, we agreed that we would begin consultations on that issue, and I believe that's extraordinarily important. And obviously both sides have to assume certain obligations there," Putin told reporters after the meeting with Biden in Geneva.
Putin did not offer details about what such talks would entail, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Biden was due to give his own press conference following Putin's briefing.
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U.S. and Russian ambassadors to return to their posts after summit
Anatoly Antonov and John Sullivan previously left Washington and Moscow
The U.S. and Russia will return their ambassadors to Moscow and D.C., respectively, following President Joe Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
The ambassadors’ return was an anticipated topic of discussion at the summit in Geneva. Russia’s U.S. ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, was called back by the Kremlin in March after Biden called Putin a “killer.” The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, left Moscow in April, publicly stating that the reason for his return to the U.S. was “consultations” with American officials. His departure from Russia came after the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia and expelled 10 Russian diplomats — and Russia, in turn, expelled 10 U.S. diplomats.
“The two ambassadors, we agreed, should return to their posts and take up their functions,” Putin said at a Wednesday news conference directly following the summit. “It’s a technical question as to exactly when that will happen — tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or whatever.”