Depending on its outcome, the meeting could shadow Biden as he returns home to help revive his domestic agenda. He arrived to the villa bolstered by support from western allies he spent the past week consulting ahead of his face-to-face with the Russian President, who arrived in Geneva Wednesday morning ahead of the summit.
In Biden’s telling, those leaders all backed him in his decision to meet Putin now, in the first six months of his presidency, before he’s had a chance to fully formulate a Russia strategy.
Still, skepticism abounds that anything can be accomplished. Instead, Biden is looking to open lines of communication with the notoriously shrewd Putin in the hopes of stalling further deterioration in relations between the United States and Moscow.
There are some areas Biden thinks he can work in harmony with Putin, including cooperation on nuclear arms, climate change and shared interest in renewing the Iran nuclear deal. And one outcome officials said was possible was an agreement to return their ambassadors back to Washington and Moscow after months with no senior diplomat in place in either country.