Biden-Putin Geneva Summit Stirs Memories Of 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev Meet

Almost 36 years on as US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are holding decidedly less hopeful talks in Geneva, history weighs on them.

Wednesday's talks between US President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin evoke vivid memories of the 1985 Geneva summit, when Cold War rivals Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met for the very first time. The November weather in the Swiss city may have been chilly, but relations began to thaw between Washington and Moscow as the US president and the Soviet leader came face to face on neutral territory. Now some 36 years on, Biden and Putin are holding decidedly less hopeful talks on the placid shores of Lake Geneva, even as history weighs on them. Back in 1985, "the atmosphere was relaxed... They had both lined something up to seduce the other camp," said former AFP correspondent Didier Lapeyronie, who covered the Reagan-Gorbachev talks.