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BERLIN - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Germany as the Biden administration presses ahead with a diplomatic charm offensive designed to woo back wary Western European allies after four years of turbulent relations under former President Donald Trump. That’s despite some lingering differences with key allies over energy and defense priorities. Biden is determined to assure Europe that Trump’s transactional approach to transatlantic ties is a thing of the past despite some significant lingering differences with core NATO allies. Those include a major dispute with Germany over the impending completion of a Russian gas pipeline and defense...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised the outcome of his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and called him an astute and shrewd negotiator. The two leaders concluded three hours of talks Wednesday at an opulent villa facing Lake Geneva by exchanging expressions of mutual respect but firmly restating their starkly different views on cyberattacks, the conflict in Ukraine, political dissent and other issues. At the same time, they announced an agreement to return each other’s ambassadors and mapped more talks on arms control and cybersecurity. Putin, who hailed Biden as a highly experienced and constructive...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are accusing President Joe Biden of being weak on Russia after his summit with Vladimir Putin, conveniently ignoring four years of Putin flattery from former President Donald Trump. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Biden had given Putin a “pass” at their summit in Switzerland Wednesday, while Trump said the U.S. “didn’t get anything” from the meeting. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a potential 2024 contender, declared, “America today is weaker than it was on the world stage just 48 hours ago.” It’s a curious line of attack from a party that largely turned a...

During CNN’s coverage of the summit between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins stated that while she appreciates Biden apologizing to her for how he responded to her at his press conference, the apology “is completely unnecessary from the president. He did not have to apologize.

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports” that Russian President Vladimir Putin knew former President Donald Trump was an “amateur” who didn’t understand these issues at all. After playing videos of both Biden and Putin and Trump and Putin, Jackson said, “The tone is obviously starkly different. What do you read into the differences here, and how should people understand that?”

President Joe Biden is using time away from summit meetings on his European tour this week for intense preparations ahead of his talks with Vladimir Putin, according to officials, as he works to avoid the pitfalls his predecessors faced in showdowns with the Russian leader. Most of his formal meetings this week have started after noon, leaving his mornings free for consultations with advisers. He has held lengthy preparation sessions with senior officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to discuss the wide range of issues he plans to bring up with Putin, from...

Falmouth, England (CNN) When President Donald Trump used his elbows at international summits, it was to throw them -- on trade, on Russia and, once, to help remove the Montenegrin prime minister from his path to a photo-op. His successor Joe Biden used his elbows differently this week. Arriving to his first global summit, he crooked his arm to extend pandemic-era greetings to a group of leaders who no longer have to tiptoe around a truculent and often angry American president. Officials attending this week's Group of 7 summit on the Cornish coast in England are emerging shell-shocked after four...