Leaders’ diplomatic dance
They should have plenty to discuss but Putin and Trump have ‘no agenda’ for talks
It is the much-anticipated first meeting of two of the world’s most powerful men but a certain vagueness surrounds Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s sit-down on Saturday.
The conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, terrorism and arms control are expected to be major topics of discussion when the Russian and United States presidents meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg. But officials were reluctant to give any clear details.
US National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton said there no agenda for Putin and Trump’s meeting, while National Security Adviser General H.R. McMaster said Trump would emphasise “whatever the President wants to talk about”.
The US and Russia have been at odds over Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory and its support of the Syrian regime, with the US supporting anti-regime forces.
Tensions also have flared amid allegations of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Trump had expressed personal respect for Putin as a leader during his presidential campaign and the Russian President was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on winning the November election.
The two leaders have spoken by phone at least twice since Trump took office. They started laying the groundwork for their meeting in Hamburg during a call in February.
However, US-Russian relations have deteriorated in recent months, as an ongoing US investigation into Russian meddling in the US presidential election focuses on possible collusion between Trump’s election campaign team and Russian officials.
Meanwhile, US frustration over Ukraine has also grown.
Last month the US announced it had added 38 people and companies to a sanctions list prompted by Russia’s incursion in Ukraine. The move came as Trump met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for talks at the White House.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the sanctions brought into question recent assurances that Washington wanted to work with the Kremlin on key international issues.
Ryabkov cancelled a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon in response to the sanctions, but Shannon met on Tuesday with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and the two diplomats discussed rescheduling the meeting.
“We were expecting just men, obviously young men, as warriors would be, and the thing about the women and children is that you’d think they wouldn’t be going to war,” said Rodrigo Bolanos, a biological anthropologist investigating the find.
“Something is happening that we have no record of, and this is really new, a first in the Huey Tzompantli,” he added.
Raul Barrera, one of the archaeologists working at the site alongside the huge Metropolitan Cathedral built over the Templo Mayor, said the skulls would have been set in the tower after they had stood on public display on the tzompantli.
Roughly 6m in diameter, the tower stood on the corner of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, Aztec god of the sun, war and human sacrifice. Its base has yet to be unearthed.
There was no doubt that the tower was one of the skull edifices mentioned by Andres de Tapia, a Spanish soldier who accompanied Cortes in the 1521 conquest of Mexico, Barrera said.
In his account of the campaign, de Tapia said he counted tens of thousands of skulls at what became known as the Huey Tzompantli. Barrera said 676 skulls had so far been found, and that the number would rise as excavations went on.