Both Russian and U.S. officials said the meeting – which was held in a conference room at the G20 summit site here – lasted longer than planned, and that leaders spent the bulk of their meeting discussing Syria.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to U.S. President Barack Obama in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, on September 5, 2016. “I think we have reached mutual understanding”, Putin told reporters, adding that Moscow and Washington may reach an agreement on resolving the Syrian crisis shortly. “In order to achieve such cooperation, we need to make sure that there is calm, and humanitarian access”, Rhodes said, as cited by Russia’s RIA Novosti. “That is why we continue with the talks”.
Obama flew in from Hangzhou, China, where he attended the Group of 20 economic summit.
Russian Federation has insisted that it can not agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al-Qaeda linked militants they overlap with in some areas.
“I’ve said all along we’re not going to rush”, said Kerry, who has negotiated several failed truces with Russian Federation in recent months. On opposing sides of many global issues, the USA and Russian Federation are nonetheless trying to broker a deal to address the Syrian civil war and perhaps even partner militarily there. The sources added that such agreement would represent a failure to Obama’s Administration if not well implemented. He made the comment in a televised news conference in southern Davao City.
At his own news conference at the end of the summit, Putin declined to discuss the details of a Syria deal, but said the talks were on the “right track” and expressed hope that an agreement could be reached shortly despite earlier disagreements.
This came just as the Syrian government troops, who are backed by Russian Federation, had the city of Aleppo back under siege. The officials requested anonymity to describe private diplomatic arrangements. Obama told U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May that a trade deal between both countries would not be a priority, reiterating his stance that “the world benefited enormously from the United Kingdom’s participation in the E.U”.
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A public break with the Philippines would put Obama in a tough position, given the Southeast Asian nation’s status as a longtime USA treaty ally. The deadliest attack was a twin bombing in the loyalist province of Tartus, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency. “Speaking at a briefing in Laos, the official warned that Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad would lead to the isolation of both Moscow and Damascus”.
