New York Daily News

Joe ‘did what he came to do’ in Vlad sitdown

- Shant Shahrigian With News Wire Services

President Biden achieved his modest goals for last week’s summit with his Russian counterpar­t, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

At their much-anticipate­d Geneva meeting, Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to minor steps on arms control and restoring diplomatic ties but didn’t achieve any kind of major breakthrou­gh on issues long plaguing the Washington-Kremlin relationsh­ip.

“He did do what he came to do,” Sullivan said of Biden on ABC’s “This Week.”

The adviser praised the U.S. president for achieving a new phase of nuclear arms control and voicing concerns about human rights abuses in Russia.

The leaders also agreed to return their respective ambassador­s to their posts, following a row that led them to go back to their home countries in the spring.

While Biden pressed Putin on cyberattac­ks, the Russian strongman didn’t appear to give any ground, insisting that the Kremlin had nothing to do with recent major hacks of U.S. infrastruc­ture.

“We had these meaningful engagement­s on the security and diplomatic side that we believe will put this relationsh­ip on more stable footing,” Sullivan said.

Republican­s have attempted to cast Wednesday’s summit as showing Biden is weak on Russia, in spite of the widely held view that Republican former President Donald Trump had a cozy relationsh­ip with Putin.

Fiona Hill, who was a foreign policy adviser under Trump, on Sunday said the recent meeting would boost Putin’s standing at home.

“In terms of the symbolism of having a sitdown with the American president, absolutely — that is a very important win for Putin,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Sullivan echoed Biden’s comments that time will tell if the U.S.-Russia relationsh­ip is improving.

“Our goal at the end of the day is a stable, predictabl­e relationsh­ip where we’re not going to be friends by any stretch of the imaginatio­n but where we can reduce the risk of escalation that would ultimately harm America’s interests,” he said.

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