World News for Students of English

17-06-2021 07:00

An 18th century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva will play host to the first meeting between US president Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The place which is looking quiet and calm will likely be a scene of tense adversarial talks, bitter arguments over election interference, cyber attacks, human rights, and fighting in Ukraine. The Swiss police and army have closed the two parks surrounding the area and installed barricades and barbed wire.

Neutral Switzerland did not join western sanctions against Russia after Moscow took Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, and Switzerland fought hard to be the place of the first Biden-Putin meeting.

Biden has recently departed on his first trip abroad since taking office. He will be attending a G7 meeting in the UK and then going to his meeting with Putin in Geneva.

The eight-day mission to Europe aims to rebuild transatlantic ties which were under pressure during the Trump era.

Difficult words: adversarial (in opposition), interference (the act of trying to influence a situation), sanction (an official punishment), seize (to take control of a place), transatlantic tie (a relationship across the ocean).

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