US President Joe Biden presented his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with a glass figurine of an American bison as a gift on Wednesday, while the Russian presented him with a stationery set.
A White House official explained that Biden’s gift, made by the Steuben Glass Company of New York, is an interpretation of “one of the most majestic mammals” in the United States, representing “strength, unity and resilience”.
The source recalled that the bison was declared in 2016 as the national mammal of the country.
And he recalled that, in the case of Russia, the European bison has been reintroduced at various points after it became extinct from Russian territory in 1927.
The figure was presented on a cherry wood base, symbolic of the first president of the United States, George Washinton, with a plaque with an inscription commemorating the summit on Wednesday.
In addition, Biden presented Putin with a pair of Randolph USA “Aviator” sunglasses, which supplies this item to the US Armed Forces and NATO partners.
For his part, Putin gave the American a lacquered wooden desk set with typical Russian motifs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov explained.
Biden and Putin held their first summit since the American became president last January at Villa La Grange, an 18th-century Geneva mansion.