The virtual global Climate Summit hosted by the United States on Thursday began with a raft of technical glitches, with Russian President Vladmir Putin inaudible for nearly a minute and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron’s voice overlapping with a constant echo. 

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This came after nearly every word of Vice President Kamala Harris’ opening statement, wherein she praised President Joe Biden, echoed. Meanwhile, during Biden’s speech, the audio and video were out of sync. 

At the summit on Earth Day, Biden announced ambitious new targets for the US to cut emmissions as a number of countries affirmed their commitment to meet similar targets. However, the virtual event got off to a rocky start. 

The issues were largely resolved by the time Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave their addresses. 

However, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s voice is heard over Macron’s when the French President started his speech. Blinken was also heard saying “they may be getting Macron because that was a tape of Macron.”

The floor was then given to Putin, who hesitated for a while before speaking up and looked off camera multiple times as he did. Putin eventually finished his address, affirming Russia’s commitment to meeting targets to offset climate change. 

Blinken later issued an apology, saying “we had some technical difficulties”.