US President Joe Biden pledged on Sunday to tell his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at his first summit on June 16 that the United States will not allow Russia to "violate" human rights.
"I will meet with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, to make it clear to him that no, we will not sit idly by and let him abuse those rights," Biden said in a speech.
The Democratic president also recalled that he had a long telephone conversation in February with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
"I made it clear to him that we cannot do anything other than defend human rights around the world, because that is who we are. The United States is unique. It is an idea," he insisted. "For us, the fact that all men and women are born equal is a fact," he said.
Biden will meet Putin on June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, at a time of great tension between the two rival powers.
The US president is showing great firmness against Russia, eager to mark a break with his predecessor Donald Trump, accused of complacency with the head of the Kremlin.
Although he promises to punish Russia again "if it continues to interfere" with American democracy, and even called Putin a "murderer", he assures that he does not want to "unleash a cycle of escalation and conflict" and is insisting on his desire for dialogue.
