“The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russian Federation and Iran, to resolve the conflict”, the USA president said.
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Putin called for the creation of a broad global coalition against terror, following his country’s surprising moves in recent weeks to increase its military presence in Syria and to share intelligence on the Islamic State group with Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Despite little sign of a breakthrough on either front, USA officials insisted it was still worthwhile for the leaders to meet – something that has happened rarely since Obama vowed to isolate Putin in retaliation for Russia’s provocations in Ukraine.
The relationship is as tense as ever, as Russian Federation continues to support Syria’s embattled dictator and its continued involvement in Ukraine drives instability there.
Expressing confidence on further strengthening the ties with India, US President
Barack Obama
today praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “aggressive” commitment towards the climate and clean energy.
“There is (an) opportunity to work on joint problems together”, Putin said of his talks with Obama, which a USA official described as “businesslike”.
Those sentiments echo the argument Putin made on “60 Minutes“, but in the earlier interview he also conceded that “there is no other solution to the Syrian crisis than strengthening the effective government structures and rendering them help in fighting terrorism, but, at the same time, urging them to engage in positive dialogue with the rational opposition and conduct reform”.
After his first formal meeting with Obama in two years, the Kremlin chief announced that he has not ruled out joining airstrikes against IS in Syria but stressed he would not send ground troops into combat. “This is exactly what happened in Ukraine,” he said.
President Obama will make clear once again that Russian Federation doubling down on their support for the Assad regime is a losing bet, Earnest told reporters last week.
Right. And Obama responded with – nothing, beyond empty calls for Assad’s removal.
“We are just at the beginning of trying to understand what the Russians intentions are in Syria, in Iraq and try to see if there are mutually beneficial ways forward here”, a senior United States official said.
These were two compelling speeches meant to score political points.
“The United States is to a known extent standing behind Kiev authorities; they are in constant contact with the Europeans,” he said.
Putin spent much of the speech delivering the Russian perspective on world affairs, which he said is nothing more than “honest and frank”.
“In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad, who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent civilians, because the alternative is surely worse”, Obama said in remarks aimed at Putin, the Guardian reported.
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“It is now obvious that the power vacuum created in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa led to emergence of anarchy areas”, Putin said. For the good of the citizens in both countries, let’s hope the private talks between the two leaders went better.
