President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to keep up negotiations over a cease-fire agreement for Syria.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Putin told reporters that a deal with the USA to “ease tensions in Syria” may come “within a few days”, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
“Given the gaps of trust that exist, that’s a tough negotiation, and we’ve haven’t yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work”, Obama declared at a news conference.
Earlier on Monday, the leaders of South Korea and China met on the sidelines of the G20 summit and Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Britain’s vote in favor of leaving the European Union was highlighted as adding uncertainty to the global economy, with the G-20 expressing hopes that the United Kingdom would be a close partner of the EU.
A USA official said “differences remain” despite two rounds of talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the summit.
“In exchange, Russian Federation would prevail on its ally, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, to stop bombing moderate rebel groups and civilians”, David reported in July.
At the press conference Monday, Obama also addressed concerns about cybersecurity, acknowledging that the USA has “had problems with cyber intrusions” from Russian Federation and other countries. United States officials blame Russian intelligence for a hack on the Democratic National Committee that resulted in a leak of emails damaging to its presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Obama and his Russian counterpart Putin met on Monday as talks between their governments on ending violence in Syria ended without an agreement.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that G20 countries are working on rules to improve conditions for investment in Africa, adding that she believed it was urgent for more direct foreign investment to go to the continent.
“Although Xi and Obama reached a long list of agreements on a wide range of topics such as the economy, security and climate change in bilateral talks, Western media did not seem to find these achievements as intriguing as the tiffs, into which they immediately read deeply”, the publication added.
A sit-down between Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also laid bare the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies’ diverging interests in Syria, with Erdogan pointedly challenging Obama on U.S. support for Kurds fighting Daesh group in Syria.
President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaTrump refuses to say whether Obama born in U.S.
Advertisement
However, Obama said that the Russian-American talks are “key” for efforts to reduce violence in the war-torn Arab country.
