Trump, Putin in ‘robust’ first meeting at G20 summit
HAMBURG: US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin engaged in a “very robust exchange” over claims Moscow meddled in America’s elections, during their first face-to-face talks Friday at a fractious G20 summit marred by violent street protests.
From the outset of the blockbuster encounter, the US property tycoon fired the key question that has weighed on his presidency, pressing the exKGB agent “on more than one occasion” on the vote interference claims, said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in the meeting.
But Tillerson’s counterpart Sergei Lavrov quickly added that Trump “accepted” Putin’s denial of Moscow’s role in propelling him to the White House, after hearing the Russian out.
Over the course of two hours and 15 minutes of talks that covered not only the damaging claims but also a slew of global crises including the Syrian war, the two leaders clearly engaged, said Tillerson.
“Let me characterise: the meeting was very constructive, the two leaders I would say, connected very quickly,” said Tillerson, adding “there was a very clear positive chemistry between the two”.
“There are so many issues on the table... Just about everything got touched upon... Neither one of them wanted to stop,” he said.
“I believe they even sent in the (US) First Lady at one point to see if she could get us out of there, but that didn’t work either... We did another hour. Clearly she failed!”
On the presidential election campaign trail last year, Trump said he hoped relations with Putin could be rebuilt after Russia’s acrimonious ties with his predecessor Barack Obama.
But the billionaire had faced increasing pressure to take a tough line on Russia after allegations it interfered in the vote.
In the talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Trump pressed Putin on the issue, “and then... felt like at this point, let’s talk about how do we go forward,” said Tillerson.
“I think that was the right place to spend our time, rather than spending a lot of time having a disagreement that everybody
Let me characterise: the meeting was very constructive, the two leaders I would say, connected very quickly. There are so many issues on the table ... Just about everything got touched upon ... Neither one of them wanted to stop. — Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State
knows we have a disagreement,” added the secretary of state.
But Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer ripped into Tillerson over the case.
“For Secretary Tillerson to say that this issue will remain unresolved is disgraceful – to give equal credence to the findings of the American intelligence community and the assertion by Mr. Putin is a grave dereliction of duty and will only encourage Russia to further interfere in our elections in the future,” he warned. — AFP