Putin and Biden to hold summit in Geneva in June

Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden will hold a summit meeting on June 16 in Geneva, in an effort to repair strained relations between the countries.

In their first face-to-face meeting as presidents, the US and Russian leaders will “discuss the state and prospects for the further development of Russian-American relations, and strategic stability issues”, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The White House said Biden and Putin “will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the US-Russia relationship”.

The meeting comes amid a deterioration in bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington amid sanctions, tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and US allegations of Russian meddling in elections.

The Russian ambassador to Washington was recalled in March in response to Biden telling an interviewer that he agreed with the assessment that Putin was a “killer”. A month later the US ambassador to Moscow also returned home for talks.

Biden proposed a summit in a third country during a telephone call with Putin in April, in what the US president said would be an effort to “normalise” relations between the countries.

Two days later he imposed a new series of sanctions against Moscow, citing alleged Russian actions including US election influence operations, a cyber hacking campaign and the maltreatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The Biden administration has said it is seeking neither to reset the relationship nor escalate tensions, but instead to put “guardrails” on it.

While some analysts in Washington say such a high-profile meeting between the leaders effectively hands Putin a public relations coup, US officials have made clear the Biden administration is seeking constructive ways to develop areas for co-operation, including nuclear issues, climate, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and North Korea.

The Kremlin said the leaders would also discuss “topical issues on the international agenda, including interaction in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the settlement of regional conflicts”.

Russia has denied allegations of involvement in attempts to meddle in US elections as well as the SolarWinds cyber attack.

The announcement of the summit comes a day after a meeting in Geneva between Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council. The White House said those talks “were held in a constructive manner and, despite outstanding differences, allowed for a better understanding of each other’s positions”.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US secretary of state Antony Blinken met in Reykjavik last week for talks regarded as paving the way for the presidential summit.

The Geneva meeting will be part of Biden’s first international trip as president, and follow a visit to the UK for a G7 summit and Nato meeting in Brussels.