Trump, Putin meet
G20 DEMOS: PROTESTERS THROW PETROL BOMBS, SET FIRE TO PATROL CARS
Venue for talks heavily guarded as violence flares.
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 yesterday 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 ex-KGB 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.
Yesterday’s encounter could have an impact on issues ranging from the North Korean crisis and conflicts in Syria and Ukraine to US-Russian disarmament treaties, world trade and global warming, analysts say.
How the “contrasting styles of machismo interact... will likely be the defining feature of their relationship,” noted Derek Chollet from think-tank German Marshall Fund. –