Encouraged by several days of meetings to build a partnership with democratic allies, the President of the United States of America (USA) Joseph Biden arrived in Geneva on Tuesday for the most tense part of his first European tour - a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports Reuters.
Putin will arrive on Wednesday just before the summit, which will be held in an 18th-century villa overlooking Lake Geneva.
Biden and Putin's first face-to-face meeting since becoming US president in January could last four to five hours or longer, where they will discuss arms control, cyber hacking and election meddling.
But in a sign of strained ties, there will be no meal during the summit, and Biden and Putin will hold separate news conferences rather than a joint one.
"No breaking of bread," a senior US official told reporters as Biden flew to Geneva for the talks, which are scheduled to begin around 13 p.m. Wednesday at the La Grange mansion, set in a 30-hectare park.
Neither side expects a convergence of positions at this summit.
Putin will arrive first at the villa, where he and Biden will first meet with Swiss President Guy Parmelin, before beginning talks in the library, which houses leather-bound historical writings, including works in Chinese, French, Persian and Turkish.
Biden and Putin will meet together with their top foreign policy advisers, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as translators, before the meeting, which will be attended by other associates.
Between 3.000 and 3.500 members of the police and other security forces are deployed in this otherwise quiet Swiss lakeside town.
Among the thousands of books in the villa are authors Charles Pictet de Rochemont, the diplomat who prepared the Swiss declaration of permanent neutrality - which is probably one of the reasons for choosing Geneva for the summit.
Biden's meetings with European allies
Biden is trying to restore European ties that were strained during the administration of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
He met with the leaders of the G7, NATO and the EU this week, securing joint statements expressing concern about Russia and China, and on Tuesday hammered out a deal that resolved a years-long trade dispute with the European Union, AP reports.
US officials announced a major breakthrough with the European Union in a 17-year-old trade dispute over subsidies for aircraft manufacturers.
Biden called Putin a "worthy adversary" and said he hoped to find areas of cooperation with the Russian president.
But he also warned that if Russia continues cyber attacks and other aggressive actions against the US, "we will respond adequately".
According to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Biden hopes to find small areas of agreement with the Russian president, including the potential return of ambassadors to Washington and Moscow who were withdrawn months ago.
Biden also wants to make progress on a new arms control agreement between the two countries, after Russia agreed to a five-year extension of the existing one in January.
The US president plans to raise issues ranging from cyber attacks to Russia's alleged involvement in air piracy, as well as Putin's treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been jailed and poisoned in an act seen as political retaliation for criticizing the Russian president.
Bonus video:
