Joe Biden, the US President, has arrived in Geneva ahead of a crunch summit with his Russian “adversary” Vladimir Putin.
The agenda for the meeting on Wednesday afternoon is now thought to be finalised and the two leaders are expected to talk for four or five hours, a US official said on Tuesday.
Both leaders say they hope the Geneva meeting, their first in-person encounter since Mr Biden became president in January, can lead to stable and predictable relations, even though they remain at odds over a range of issues from Syria to Ukraine.
However, as a note of caution, one senior White House official said that they were “not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting.”
Relations are at their lowest point in years, with Mr Biden labelling his Russian counterpart as a killer with no soul, to which Mr Putin responded that it takes one to know one.
Both countries have recalled their ambassadors.
In the build up to the summit, held on neural ground, as Donald Trump did with Mr Putin in Finland in 2018, Mr Biden said: “He’s bright. He’s tough. And I have found that he is a … as they say, when you used to play ball, ‘a worthy adversary.’”
Talks are expected to cover the recent spate of cyber attacks in the US, which Mr Biden has blamed on shadowy Russian hackers.
He has previously suggested that he wants Russian authorities to crack down on such cybercriminals.
The pair are also expected to discuss human rights. Washington has criticised Moscow over its treatment and alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny, and says he should be freed.
The Kremlin, which denies the poisoning, has said Russian politics is a domestic matter and Washington should stay out of it.
Ukraine will also feature in the discussions, with the US alarmed by a build-up of Russian forces in Crimea and near the Ukranian border earlier this year.
On Monday, NATO leaders reiterated a 2008 decision that Ukraine could one day join, but Biden said Kyiv had to root out corruption and meet other criteria first.
The status of foreign missions is one area where both sides believe there may be scope for progress.
Russia recalled Anatoly Antonov, its ambassador to Washington, in March after Mr Biden said he believed Putin was a “killer,” while John Sullivan, the US ambassador to Moscow, returned to Washington for consultations in April.
An agreement for both diplomats to return to their posts would send a signal that some progress had been made.
CNN is reporting that Mr Sullivan will attend the meeting between the presidents.
