Biden-Putin summit highlights: 'I did what I came to do,' Biden said
Putin called the summit in Geneva "constructive" and without "hostility."
U.S. President Joe Biden held a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday at what the leaders agree is a "low point" in the U.S.-Russia relationship.
The two men faced off inside an 18th-century Swiss villa, situated alongside a lake in the middle of Geneva's Parc de la Grange. The fifth American president to sit down with Putin, Biden has spoken with him and met him before, in 2016.
Having called Putin a "killer" and saying he's told him before he has no "soul," Biden told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega on Monday that he also recalled the Russian leader as being "bright" and "tough."
"And I have found that he is a -- as they say, when you used to play ball -- a worthy adversary," Biden said.
Highlights:
- Biden gives Putin American Bison crystal sculpture and Aviator sunglasses
- Biden departs Geneva to end 1st overseas trip as president
- Biden snaps at reporter over whether he's confident Putin will change, later apologizes
- Biden says meeting Putin not about trust but about American 'self-interest'
- Biden says he raised many issues with Putin, but did not claim he changed his behavior
- Biden lays out 3 areas where he says he succeeded
Expanded meeting ends early
A White House official said the expanded bilateral meeting broke at 5:05 p.m. local time (11:05 a.m. ET), after a little more than an hour.
The two men spent two hours and 38 minutes meeting together in total, according to the White House -- shorter than the four to five hours the Biden administration said it expected it to last.
Biden's ride, the Beast, is staged outside the Villa.
The second meeting was going to be broken into two parts -- with a break splitting up the two parts -- but the official said that it was all just one long part.
It appears the leaders are done meeting for the day.
White House downplays possible prisoner swap
White House officials have significantly downplayed the prospect of a prisoner swap for two U.S. Marine veterans, Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan, being held in Russia, ahead of the meetings.
"That's certainly something the Russians have been pushing for," said ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega. "They have basically said this could encourage the Kremlin to target more Americans unfairly like they believe these two Americans there were targeted."
Russian officials have indicated they would like to trade Reed and Whelan for two Russians held in the U.S.: Viktor Bout -- one of the world's most notorious arms dealers and dubbed "the Merchant of Death" — and also Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot currently serving a lengthy jail sentence for a drug smuggling conviction.
Whelan's family overnight released an audio message from him recorded from the prison camp in central Russia where he is held. In it, he appealed to Biden to help free him.
2nd, expanded meeting underway
A White House official confirmed the expanded bilateral meeting started about an hour ago, at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET).
ABC News Correspondent Karen Travers said the summit is about setting the U.S.-Russia relationship on a new path forward to a more stable, predictable relationship.
"In terms of the stakes, it's been striking to hear officials on both sides say over the last few days heading into this summit that there are very low expectations for some major breakthrough between President Biden and President Putin," Travers said. "This is all about starting a conversation."
She also noted how different this meeting looks from President Donald Trump's encounter Putin in Helsinki in 2018, and the two took questions standing side-by-side at a joint news conference.
What does success look like for Biden and Putin?
ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz highlighted the "incredible" body language seen in Biden and Putin's face-to-face meeting and said the images captured there already make the summit a success for Putin.
"I think President Putin, you saw those pictures of president Putin with President Biden. That's essentially what he wants right there," Raddatz said. "The relaxed President Putin sitting back in his chair, Joe Biden looking relaxed as well. All of this is so rehearsed."
"They know the world is looking at those pictures, especially Vladimir Putin. He wants to be on the world stage," she added.
Even with Putin denying Russian involvement in recent U.S. cyberattacks, his refusal to discuss imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny with Biden going into the meeting, and the two leaders still likely to air their grievances in dueling press conferences later, Raddatz said, since relations are so low, any progress will be a win.
"I think because they have lowered the bar so far, but it's still a bar, that any progress will be seen as a win according to Joe Biden and probably according to Vladimir Putin, too," she said.
Biden says he has the full support of NATO allies to meet with Putin
The high-stakes meeting between Biden and Putin comes on the heels of a summit with NATO leaders in Belgium's capital, another first for Biden as U.S. president.
"What I'll convey to President Putin is that I'm not looking for conflict with Russia but that we will respond if Russia continues its harmful activities," Biden said at a press conference in Brussels. "And we will not fail to defend the trans-Atlantic alliance or stand up for democratic values."
Biden said not a single NATO leader expressed reservations about him meeting with Putin but rather have "thanked" him for doing it.
"I had discussions with them about -- in the open -- about what they thought was important from their perspective and what they thought was not important," he said.