When asked about the meeting a short time later at his end-of-summit press conference in China, Obama said he’s instructed Kerry and Lavrov to keep working on an agreement. “Frankly, both offensively and defensively, we have more capacity”.
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Obama’s meeting with Putin came as the Russian Federation leader is playing a prominent role in the presidential campaign at home. Obama said the aim was to reach “meaningful, serious, verifiable cessations of hostilities in Syria”.
Washington should “aim to find a compromise which would reflect the interests of both cooperating sides”, Putin said, adding that sometimes the United States leadership only considers its “own benefit”.
His words on cyber weren’t the only ones that pointed to areas of tension with the Russian leader.
Speaking in China, Erdogan said he had repeated a proposal for a “no-fly zone” in Syria during his talks with Russian President Vladimir and U.S. President Barack Obama.
“(The two presidents) discussed, above all, Syria and Ukraine.
“Before this meeting, Putin met with Shinzo Abe in Vladivostok, with Theresa May in China, and now meets with Barack Obama”, the expert explained.
Obama suggested Monday his planned meeting Duterte may not go forward.
“We have had some productive conversations about what a real Cessation of Hostilities would look like that would allow us both, the United States and Russian Federation, to focus our attention on common enemies, like ISIL and Nusra. After that Obama and Putin held a one-on-one meeting behind closed doors”, he said, according to TASS.
White House officials said last week that Obama would confront Duterte about the killings.
Mr Xi said China was committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, the Xinhua news agency reported, but he also restated China’s opposition to the USA deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea to counter the nuclear threat from North Korea.
It was one of Obama’s final chances to engage in face-to-face diplomacy with his counterparts before a new president is elected in November.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who supports protectionist trade policies, has pulled into an effective tie with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, erasing a substantial deficit.
The search for a new deal will continue but key differences remain. “Yes, consultation, co-operation back home a good thing, but how long can you wait?”
Speaking to reporters in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, he said it was premature to give details about the terms of the agreement, but that Russian Federation would strengthen co-operation with the United States on fighting terrorism. An “effort [to make the deal work] should increase in urgency over the next several weeks”, Obama said. “That’s been a topic of conversation with President Putin as it has been with other countries”.
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When he left China on Monday, he boarded Air Force One via a full-sized staircase provided by Hangzhou International Airport.
