First round of Putin-Biden talks end

Shafaq News/ U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have finished the first round of their summit talks Wednesday and are proceeding to the first of two expanded meetings in Geneva.

Biden and Putin first met accompanied by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a pair of translators.

Two additional sessions are planned Wednesday afternoon with the leaders to be joined by additional aides and translators.

On the U.S. side, the larger meetings are set to include Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan and National Security Council Russia experts Eric Green and Stergos Kaloudis.

The Russian delegation is to include Lavrov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, Lavrov’s deputy Sergei Ryabkov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian military Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, as well as Kremlin envoys on Ukraine and Syria and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Overall, the summit is projected to last four to five hours before each leader holds a press conference.