Biden ahead of Putin Meeting: I’ll Let Him Know what I want Him to Know

By Staff, Agencies 

In a statement construed by some as a “warning,” US President Joe Biden kicked off his first foreign trip by announcing that he was heading to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to “let him know what I want him to know.”

Biden touched down in the UK on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday and the start of the G7 summit on Friday. His schedule in the coming days is a busy one. From the G7 in Cornwall, Biden will travel to Brussels for a NATO summit and then to Switzerland in a week’s time to meet his Russian counterpart.

It’s the latter engagement that’s perhaps most eagerly anticipated by pundits and journalists. 
Speaking to a gathering of US forces in Suffolk, Biden outlined his travel plans, stating that he would be meeting with Putin to “let him know what I want him to know.”

Yet Biden then claimed to want a “stable, predictable” relationship with Russia, built around the “responsibilities” both powers shoulder. 

“But I have been clear [that] the United States will respond in a robust and meaningful way if the Russian government engages in harmful activities,” Biden added. “I’m going to communicate [that] there are consequences for violating the sovereignty of democracies, in the United States and Europe and elsewhere.”