By JONATHAN LEMIRE, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and AAMER MADHANI

GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their summit on Wednesday with an agreement to return their nations’ ambassadors to their posts in Washington and Moscow and a plan to begin work toward replacing the last remaining treaty between the two countries limiting nuclear weapons.

But the two leaders offered starkly different views on difficult simmering issues including cyber and ransomware attacks originating from Russia.

Putin insisted anew that his country has nothing to do with such attacks, despite U..S. intelligence that indicates otherwise. Biden, meanwhile, said that he made clear to Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines — including going after major American infrastructure — his administration would respond and “the consequences of that would be devastating,”

Will Putin change his behavior? Biden was asked at a post-summit news conference.

“I said what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts” in a way that “diminishes their standing in the world,” Biden said. “I’m not confident of anything. I’m just stating a fact.”

Both leaders, who have stirred escalating tension since Biden took office in January, suggested that while an enormous chasm between the two nations remains the talks were constructive.

Putin said there was “no hostility” during three hours of talks, a session that wrapped up more quickly than expected.

When it was over, Putin had first crack at describing the results at a solo news conference, with Biden following soon after. Biden said they spent a “great deal of time” discussing cybersecurity and he believed Putin understood the U.S. position.

“I pointed out to him, we have significant cyber capability,” Biden said. “In fact, (if) they violate basic norms, we will respond. … I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War.”

Putin noted that Biden raised human rights issues with him, including the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin defended Navalny’s prison sentence and deflected repeated questions about mistreatment of Russian opposition leaders by highlighting U.S. domestic turmoil, including the Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Putin held forth for nearly an hour before international reporters. While showing defiance at queries about Biden pressing him on human rights, he also expressed respect for Biden as an experienced political leader.

The Russian noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and also spoke about his family — messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden’s “moral values.” Though he raised doubt that the U.S.-Russia relationship could soon return to a measure of equilibrium of years past, Putin suggested that Biden was someone he could work with.

“The meeting was actually very efficient,” Putin said. “It was substantive, it was specific. It was aimed at achieving results, and one of them was pushing back the frontiers of trust.”

Putin said he and Biden agreed to begin negotiations on nuclear talks to potentially replace the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons after it expires in 2026.

Washington broke off talks with Moscow in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its military intervention in support of separatists in eastern Ukraine. Talks resumed in 2017 but gained little traction and failed to produce an agreement on extending the New START treaty during the Trump administration.

The Russian president said there was an agreement between the leaders to return their ambassadors to their respective postings. Both countries had pulled back their top envoys to Washington and Moscow as relations chilled in recent months.

Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington about three months ago after Biden called Putin a killer; U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost two months ago, after Russia suggested he return to Washington for consultations. Putin said that the ambassadors were expected to return their posts in the coming days.

The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.

Biden nodded when a reporter asked if Putin could be trusted, but the White House quickly sent out a tweet insisting that the president was “very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”

Their body language, at least in their brief moments together in front of the press, was not exceptionally warm.

The two leaders did shake hands — Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader — after Swiss President Guy Parmelin welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit. When they were in front of the cameras a few minutes later—this time inside the grand lakeside mansion where the summit was held—they seemed to avoid eye contact.

For months, Biden and Putin have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden has repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, for the jailing of Russia’s foremost opposition leader and for interference in American elections.

Putin has reacted with whatabout-isms and denials — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn’t been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.

In advance of Wednesday’s meeting, both sides set out to lower expectations.

Even so, Biden said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship, a significant goal for a president who sees Russia as one of America’s crucial adversaries.

Arrangements for the meeting were carefully choreographed and vigorously negotiated.

Biden first floated the meeting in an April phone call in which he informed Putin that he would be expelling several Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions against dozens of people and companies, part of an effort to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.

The White House announced ahead of the summit that Biden wouldn’t hold a joint news conference with Putin, deciding it did not want to appear to elevate Putin at a moment when the U.S. president is urging European allies to pressure Putin to cut out myriad provocations.

Biden sees himself with few peers on foreign policy. He traveled the globe as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was given difficult foreign policy assignments by President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. His portfolio included messy spots like Iraq and Ukraine and weighing the mettle of China’s Xi Jinping during his rise to power.

He has repeatedly said that he believes executing effective foreign policy comes from forming strong personal relations, and he has managed to find rapport with both the likes of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Biden has labeled an “autocrat,” and more conventional Western leaders including Canada’s Justin Trudeau.

But with Putin, who he once said has “no soul,” Biden has long been wary. At the same time, he acknowledges that Putin, who has remained the most powerful figure in Russian politics over the span of five U.S. presidents, is not without talent.

“He’s bright. He’s tough,” Biden said earlier this week. “And I have found that he is a — as they say … a worthy adversary.”

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington and AP video journalist Daniel Kozin contributed reporting

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This story has been corrected to show that Geneva is not Switzerland’s capital.

By The Associated Press

CARBIS BAY, England – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson greeted leaders from the Group of Seven nations and the European Union on a wooden boardwalk on the freshly raked sand of Carbis Bay to open the G-7 summit on Friday.

Johnson wore a charcoal gray suit and light blue tie. The prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, was in a hot pink mid-length dress.

The couple greeted leaders with elbow bumps and small talk about social distancing and the weather, under typically moody English skies.

U.S. first lady Jill Biden said, “I feel like we are at a wedding.”

Johnson, who wed the former Carrie Symonds last month, later joked it was like walking down the aisle.

Reporters asked U.S. President Joe Biden what his message was for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whom Biden is scheduled to meet with next week. The president replied, “I’ll tell you after I’ve delivered it.”

The G-7 leaders posed for a group photo. As the group walked away, led by Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron threw his arm around Biden’s shoulder and began an animated discussion. The remarks were inaudible.

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FALMOUTH, England — Hundreds of people have gathered for climate change protests near the site of the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in southwest England.

Ahead of the official start of the three-day talks, some activists sent a barge carrying inflatable caricatures of U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson floating off the coast of Cornwall on Friday. The figures had messages written on their hands reading “Wave of Hope” and “Crack the Crises.”

Later, around 500 people joined a rally in St. Ives organized by the Extinction Rebellion climate activism group. Protesters wore blue and green gowns and headdresses while holding flags that read “G7 drowning in promises” and “Action not words.”

Climate change is a top issue on the G-7 summit agenda, along with recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Dozens of young people also joined a protest on behalf of Fridays for Future, a youth climate movement kicked off in 2018 by activist Greta Thunberg.

“I’m inspired by the youth who are leading Fridays for Future. I think they are amazing, and if we have any hope, the hope is with them and not with our rich, greedy, lying leaders of the world meeting for the G-7,” said Jill Eastland, 56, who joined the protest.

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CARBIS BAY, England — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she hopes Group of Seven leaders achieve “very good results” on coronavirus vaccines and show the world “we’re not just thinking of ourselves.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ahead of a leaders’ summit starting Friday that he expected the G-7 to commit to sharing 1 billion doses with countries around the world.

Germany has said it plans to donate 30 million of its vaccine doses by the end of the year, part of a commitment of 100 million by the European Union. Merkel’s government has noted that Germany has been a major donor to the U.N.-backed COVAX facility, which is supplying doses to poorer countries, and that the EU has been a major exporter of vaccines.

Merkel said after arriving at the summit: “I hope that we will achieve very good results to show that we’re not just thinking of ourselves, but we’re also thinking of those who don’t yet have the opportunity to get vaccinated — above all, African countries, but others, too.”

She didn’t elaborate on what those results would be.

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CARBIS BAY, England — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she expects the Group of Seven to send a strong signal for “values-based multilateralism,” but she cautioned that problems such as climate change won’t be solved without China.

Merkel said after arriving at a G-7 leaders’ summit in southwest England on Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden “represents the commitment to multilateralism that we have been missing in recent years.”

The chancellor added: “We put in a strong word here for multilateralism here, and for values-based multilateralism.” She said that puts the G-7 — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – at odds with Russia and also “in some aspects” with China.

Merkel is attending what’s expected to be her last G-7 summit after nearly 16 years in power.

“We need everyone in the world — we want to work together, particularly in the areas of climate protection and biodiversity. We will never achieve solutions there without China,” she said.

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FALMOUTH, England — British police say seven people were arrested after officers found two vehicles carrying paint, smoke grenades and loudspeakers close to the Group of Seven summit venue in southwest England .

Police said Friday that officers searched a car and a van about seven miles (11 kilometers) from the Carbis Bay Hotel on Thursday afternoon and found the items inside.

Four men and three women were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance and possessing an article with intent to commit criminal damage. All seven remain in police custody.

Police said they support safe and legal protests but criminal activity and public disorder are not tolerated.

Security is tight around the G-7 venues near St. Ives, England, where leaders of the world’s wealthy nations are gathering for three days of talks. Armed soldiers guarding the main sites and some 5,000 extra police officers from around the U.K. deployed to the area.

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HAYLE, England — U.S. first lady Jill Biden and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, are touring a preschool in southwestern England and learning how the children care for some rabbits.

The women also plan to take part in a talk about early childhood education. The White House says it’s the first time they’ve met.

Biden and the former Kate Middleton are visiting with 4- and 5-year-olds at Connor Downs Academy in Hayle, England. Biden carried a bowl of carrots when they went outside to see the bunnies.

Biden is a longtime English teacher who focuses on education, as does Kate, a mother of three young children.

The first lady is traveling with her husband, President Joe Biden, who is attending a Group of Seven summit of the world’s largest economies opening Friday in Carbis Bay.

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CARBIS BAY, England — Workers are carefully raking the sand on the beach where British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will greet Group of Seven leaders at the start of their summit in southwestern England.

The backdrop for the greetings and family photo on Friday is an idyllic view of Carbis Bay, with the event’s huge security operation just out of sight.

A Royal Navy destroyer is moored in the bay, and armed police and snipers are ringing the seaside resort where leaders of seven wealthy nations are meeting for the first time in two years.

The G-7 nations are f Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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PLYMOUTH, England — U.S. President Joe Biden is going to be hosting German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House next month.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Friday that Merkel, who is leaving office later this year, will visit Washington on July 15.

Psaki, in a statement, said the meeting will affirm ties between the two nations and the leaders will discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and international security.

Merkel will be the first European leader to visit the White House.

She and Biden were set to meet later Friday at the Group of Seven summit, a gathering of some of the world’s wealthiest nations, taking place in England.

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FALMOUTH, England — The mother of a British teenager killed in a road accident involving a U.S. diplomat’s wife says she is hopeful of progress in the stalled case after Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised the case with President Joe Biden at the G-7.

Harry Dunn, 19, died in 2019 when his motorcycle collided with a car driven by Anne Sacoolas near a military base in England used by the U.S. Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and returned to the United States after the crash. She has been charged in England with causing death by dangerous driving but is refusing to come back to Britain.

The U.K. government said Johnson discussed the issue with Biden when they met Thursday, “and reiterated that the U.K. wants to see justice done for the family.” Johnson said the president was “extremely sympathetic” to the family’s plight.

Dunn’s mother, Caroline Charles, said she hoped Biden’s personal experience of similar tragic loss would help U.S. authorities take a “different view” of the case.

Biden’s first wife and their 1-year-old daughter died in a car accident in 1972.

“It is almost two years since we lost Harry in August 2019 and it would be lovely to think that all parties can now come together to help bring this living nightmare to an end so that we can try to rebuild our shattered lives,” Charles said.

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BERLIN — The German government says a member of the country’s advance team to the G-7 summit has gone into precautionary quarantine after a coronavirus case was reported in their hotel in the Cornish town of St. Ives.

The government said in a statement Friday that the incident would have no impact on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her delegation’s trip to the summit in Carbis Bay.