Biden to urge Putin to respect human rights during meeting in Geneva

President Biden on Sunday said he will call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect human rights when the two leaders meet in Geneva in June.

“I had a long conversation, two hours recently, with [Chinese] President Xi, making it clear to him that we can do nothing but speak out for human rights around the world because that’s who we are. I’ll be meeting with President Putin in a couple weeks in Geneva making it clear that we will not, we will not, stand by and let him abuse those rights,” Biden said in remarks delivered at the annual Memorial Day service in Delaware.

The White House announced last week that Biden and Putin will meet on June 16, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the two presidents since Biden took office as president.

The leaders, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, “will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability in the U.S.-Russia relationship.”

The meeting is one stop on Biden’s tour of Europe. The president is scheduled to attend a Group of Seven (G-7) summit in the United Kingdom from June 11 to 13, then travel to Brussels for a NATO summit and meetings with European leaders on June 14.

With that itinerary, Biden will be face-to-face with Putin after demonstrating solidarity with the United States’s European allies and the NATO alliance.

Biden called for a meeting with Putin in April, after the administration levied sanctions on Russia, meant to punish the country for its involvement in the SolarWinds cyberattack and interference in the 2020 presidential election.