When Trump met Putin: ‘robust’ talks on American election
Leaders tackle the thorny issue of Russian hacking in their first face-to-face meeting
By Roland Oliphant, Justin Huggler
and Gordon Rayner in Hamburg DONALD TRUMP and Vladimir Putin had a “robust and lengthy” exchange over Russian interference in the US elections and agreed to a new ceasefire agreement for Syria in their first faceto-face meeting yesterday.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg for talks in which they also discussed the war in Ukraine, the North Korean nuclear crisis and cyber security.
But the meeting began with what Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, described as a “very robust and lengthy exchange” about Russian interference in last year’s presidential election, in which Mr Putin demanded proof of alleged Russian involvement.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, confirmed the exchange took place and claimed Mr Trump “heard Putin’s statements that Russia didn’t hack [the] election and accepts them”.
While Mr Putin has denied Russia played any direct role in the election meddling, he and Mr Trump agreed the issue had become a hindrance to better relations between the two powers, Mr Tillerson said. Mr Putin and Mr Trump, accompanied by Mr Lavrov and Mr Tillerson, left a meeting on climate change with other leaders early for their one-hour meeting.
Speaking alongside Mr Putin before the talks began, Mr Trump called it an “honour” to meet the Russian president. “We’ve had some very, very good talks. We’re going to have a talk now and obviously that will continue. We look forward to a lot of very positive things happening for Russia, for the United States and for everybody concerned,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Putin said they had spoken over the phone about “important bilateral and international issues … but phone conversations are not enough”.
Mr Lavrov said the new Syria peace agreement brokered by the two countries would come into force in the south-west of the war-torn country at noon local time tomorrow. The deal, which also involves Israel and Jordan, is separate from the establishment of “safe zones” agreed by Russia, Turkey and Iran at talks in Astana.
Earlier in the day Mr Trump, Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, and Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, said they would apply “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang, by pushing new sanctions on North Korea after it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this week. They failed to convince China and Russia, however. Mr Putin called for a “pragmatic and delicate” approach to the North Korean issue, saying in a meeting with Mr Moon that “one must not lose his cool”.
Little agreement appeared to have been reached on the issue of climate change. In the run-up to the summit, Angela Merkel made it clear she intended to make the issue the centrepiece of the talks, and set Europe on a collision course with Mr Trump by saying she would use the meeting to defend the Paris agreement, which he has announced he will withdrew America from. Mrs Merkel acknowledged the difficulty of achieving any agreement on the issue, telling a press conference: “There are different opinions in this area because the US regrettably wants to withdraw from the Paris accord.”
There were also awkward moments in talks on trade. In a discussion on protectionism, Mr Trump stressed his “America first” policy and the need to protect American jobs, saying “all we ask for is a level playing field”.
He then sat down and crossed his arms, sitting with “a face like thunder”, according to one diplomatic source, as President Xi Jinping of China spoke. Mr Tillerson said the meeting ran on so long that at one point Melania Trump came in to check on progress.
“They even sent in the First Lady at one point to see if she could get us out of there, and that didn’t work either … We went another hour after,” Mr Tillerson said.
‘We look forward to a lot of very positive things for Russia, for the United States and for everybody concerned’