The presidents of the USA and Russia, Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin, finished the first round of talks today and are starting the first of two broader meetings with delegations in Geneva.
It is the first meeting between the presidents of the United States of America and Russia.
In the first round of meetings, Biden and Putin spoke in the presence of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and two translators.
Two wider meetings are planned this afternoon when the two leaders will be joined by additional aides and translators.
On the American side, the extended meeting should include Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan and National Security Council Russia experts Eric Green and Stergos Kaludis.
The Russian delegation includes Lavrov, Putin's adviser on foreign affairs Yuri Ushakov, Lavrov's deputy Sergei Ryabkov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army General Valery Gerasimov, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov as well as the Kremlin's envoys for Ukraine and Syria and Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
In total, the summit is expected to last four to five hours, after which the leaders will hold separate media conferences.
Earlier, Putin thanked Biden for the initiative for the meeting and said that he hoped for a constructive meeting.
It is their first direct meeting in 10 years: Biden last met Putin in 2011 when the Russian leader was prime minister and he was vice president of the USA.
He also called Putin a "murderer" and a "worthy adversary."
The two world leaders will also discuss today some issues that were also of crucial importance for their meeting in 2011, such as trade and arms control.
The meeting is taking place while Russian-American diplomatic relations are very bad.
Biden expressed hope to find a common "field of cooperation" with Putin, but is also expected to discuss with the Russian president cybercrime, Russian interference in the US election and other issues that have contributed to the cooling of relations between the two countries.
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