Discussing her hopes for Biden and Putin’s topics of discussion, Clinton said she would like to see a resumption of negotiations about nuclear arms that would eventually include China, as well as a discussion of cyberweapons. According to her, she expects Biden to welcome cooperation where it’s possible, in areas like climate change.
Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign was the target of what the U.S. intelligence community identified as an election interference campaign launched by the Russian government. Dragged down in part by controversy that emerged from hacked emails and disinformation that circulated widely on social media, Clinton was upset in the 2016 election and lost to previous President Donald Trump.
As president, Trump was widely seen as exceedingly deferential to Putin on the world stage, an exception to hardline foreign policy positions he adopted more broadly, including with close U.S. allies. Trump threatened multiple times to pull the U.S. out of NATO, the trans-Atlantic treaty set up as a deterrent to Russia, and was famously unwilling to accept the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that the Kremlin sought in 2016 to hinder Clinton's campaign and bolster his, suggesting during a 2018 press conference that he would accept Putin's word over that of his own intelligence agencies.
Clinton, in her interview with "Morning Joe," expressed relief at having Biden at the helm and hope that Biden will approach the meeting with toughness. Among other topics, Clinton said she hopes Biden will communicate to Putin that, if he’s tempted to foster closer relations with China, "that hasn't worked out so well in the past.”
“We can't turn the clock back, but I think what president Biden understands is he wants to sit across the table, as I've done with Putin, and basically look him in the eye and say, 'OK, let's figure out where we can work together. ... Let us tell you what we're no longer going to abide, and there will be implications. And don't test us,'" Clinton said.