Biden and Putin call Geneva talks ‘positive’, ‘constructive’, but differences emerged over how much they will cooperate

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to establish a dialogue to lower the risk of military conflict and form a task force to investigate cyberattacks that have temporarily crippled energy and health care systems in the US, as both sought to ease tensions between the two countries.

“I‘m pleased that [Putin] agreed today to launch a bilateral strategic stability dialogue – diplomatic-speak for saying get our military experts and our diplomats together to work on a mechanism that can lead to control of new and dangerous and sophisticated weapons that are coming on the scene now, that reduce the times of response, that raise the prospects of accidental war,” Biden said in his news conference after the meeting.