How Russia and US will come to the table

By REN QI in Moscow and ZHAO HUANXIN in Washington | China Daily | Updated: 2021-05-17 07:48
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World leaders appear on a video screen during a virtual climate summit in the East Room of the White House in Washington on April 23. [Photo/Agencies]

All eyes on possible summit between Putin and Biden

Global media and think tanks will focus their attention in coming months on a European country, where a summit could be held between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his United States counterpart Joe Biden.

Although it is still not known where the meeting will take place, experts and analysts have begun to predict potential topics to be discussed by the two leaders.

There are a number of things that Biden, unlike his predecessor Donald Trump, would like to achieve on the international stage, ranging from climate change and tax reform to solving the Iran nuclear issue.

However, Sam Greene, a professor of Russian politics at King's College London, said, "Sad as it may sound, there are no problems on Joe Biden's agenda for which Vladimir Putin is a plausible part of the solution."

Regarding climate change, it would be nice to have Russia on board, but the negotiations that really matter are with Brussels, not Moscow, Greene said, adding that when the time comes, Russia will be brought to the negotiating table not by the US, but by Europe, spurred by the European Union's proposed carbon border tax.

The fate of Biden's global minimum tax for transnational corporations does not depend in any meaningful sense on Russia's position, according to Greene.

Washington would dearly like to revive nuclear talks with Iran, but lost faith in the "myth" of Moscow's role as a facilitator with Teheran during the Obama administration, he said.

On strategic arms control, the "low-hanging fruit "in the form of renewing New START, the nuclear arms reduction treaty between the US and Russia, has already been picked. Experts and policymakers hold little hope for an ambitious agenda beyond this, not least because of doubts in the US Senate.

Moscow could cause problems if it wanted to, but the US believes that strategic stability is equally important to both countries. On this front, at least, the Biden administration is content to rely on Putin's rationality, Greene said.

The only major issue that cannot be resolved without Moscow's involvement is the conflict in the Donbass region in Ukraine, he said.

The accumulation of Russian forces along the Ukrainian border has worried Washington, and would appear to be the reason why the troops are being massed, according to Greene.

The Biden administration believes that current relations with Moscow should be distanced and dispassionate, although whether this approach will be more effective is open to question, Greene added.

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