OBAMA, PUTIN IN 4-MINUTE HUDDLE

Leaders touch briefly on Syria and Ukraine

LIMA, PERU • President Barack Obama spoke briefly with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Syria and Ukraine on Sunday in their first known conversation since Donald Trump was elected the next U.S. president.

The two leaders were seen chatting at the start of the opening session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima. They stood off to the side together momentarily with aides close by before shaking hands and then taking their seats around a table.

The White House said the conversation lasted four minutes.

Although reporters present couldn’t hear what they said, the White House said Obama encouraged Putin to uphold his country’s commitments under the Minsk deal aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict. Both the White House and the Kremlin said the leaders had agreed that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov should keep working throughout Obama’s final months on initiatives to reduce violence in Syria and alleviate suffering.

The short interaction came amid intense speculation and concern about whether Trump’s election might herald a more conciliatory U.S. approach to Russia.

Under Obama, the U.S. has enacted severe sanctions on Russia over its aggressive behaviour in Ukraine and has sought unsuccessfully to persuade Moscow to stop intervening in Syria’s civil war to help prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Trump and Putin have already signalled they may pursue a less antagonistic relationship after Trump takes office in January. In a phone call shortly after Trump was elected, Putin congratulated him and expressed readiness for a “partner-like dialogue,” the Kremlin said.

Throughout the campaign, the Kremlin insisted that it had no favourites and rejected the claims of interference in the U.S. election.

In Ottawa Sunday, Russia’s ambassador to Canada says the U.S. election of Trump was a victory for common sense and pragmatism.

Alexander Darchiev told CTV’s Question Period that Trump’s presidency will provide a “promising opening for Russian-American relations,” which he acknowledged are not currently in great shape.

The meeting came on Obama’s final day in Peru, his last stop on his final overseas tour as president.

Trump’s election overshadowed every stop on Obama’s trip. The president went to once-unimaginable lengths to defend the real estate mogul and reality TV star whom he had repeatedly denounced during the campaign as “temperamentally unfit” and “uniquely unqualified” to be president.