US President Joe Biden is using time away from summit meetings on his European tour this week for intense preparations ahead of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, according to officials, as he works to avoid the pitfalls his predecessors faced meeting with the Russian leader.
Most of his formal meetings this week have started after noon, leaving his mornings free for consultations with advisers. He has held lengthy preparation sessions with senior officials, including Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, to discuss the wide range of issues he plans to bring up with Putin, from cyber to Syria to Ukraine.
The President has also asked foreign leaders at the G7, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for their input as he prepares for the meeting in Geneva, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Putin even came up as a point of conversation during his tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, Biden told reporters, saying she “wanted to know” about the Russian president.
Given some NATO allies had expressed concern about the optics of Biden’s summit with Putin, Sullivan said Biden would speak privately with leaders “about what he intends to talk to Putin about” during a summit of the defense alliance on Monday.
“He gets to hear from them as well, so that he will go into Geneva with the full support and solidarity of all of our NATO allies,” Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One Sunday. Sullivan specifically highlighted Biden’s meeting with Turkish President Erdogan on Monday as a chance to “compare notes.”
As Biden becomes the fifth straight American president with whom Putin has met, officials want Biden to be prepared for Putin’s tactics, including his well-known habit of turning discussions of Russia’s bad practices back on the United States. Biden has told aides he believes Putin will respond to directness during their talks, and wants to be ready to offer a frank message.
“He’s overprepared!” Biden’s wife Jill exclaimed last week when asked whether her husband was primed for his meeting with Putin.
Along with Merkel, Biden has opened the door for input to other key allies in bilateral meetings and conversations on the margins over the last several days. The idea serves dual purposes, aides said: While Biden’s decades in foreign policy give him a self-assurance about his approach, he sees value in the views of others who have had similar meetings with the Russian leader.
From Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins in Brussels and Natasha Bertrand in Geneva