A sit-down between Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also laid bare the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies’ diverging interests in Syria, with Erdogan pointedly challenging Obama on US support for Kurds fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
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“There is no reason that China and the U.S. can not be friendly competitors on the commercial side and important partners when it comes to dealing with the many worldwide problems that threaten the two countries”, Mr Obama said. The U.S. and Russian Federation earlier Monday said that despite weeks of talks and getting tantalizingly close, they hadn’t reached a deal.
Leaders of G20 members, guest countries and worldwide organisations exchanged views on topics including more effective global economic and financial governance, robust worldwide trade and investment, inclusive and interconnected development on September 4 and 5.
“I think I’ve already offered my opinion”, Obama said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to strike a deal for a ceasefire in Syria and differences remain, a senior State Department official said after their meeting in China on Monday. After an aide scrambled to remove the podium once intended for his bargaining partner, Kerry, standing alone, eventually announced there was no deal.
Russian forces have aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to target US-backed opposition fighters that Moscow and Damascus claim are terrorists. He must also believe it’s “wacky” to secure Americans with jobs before refugees and illegal immigrants, the latter of which don’t belong in the U.S.in the first place. The package would include provisions so aid can reach besieged areas of Syria and measures to prevent Assad’s government from bombing areas where US -backed rebels are operating. The U.S. wants Russian Federation to focus exclusively on IS and al-Qaida-linked groups.
Even before Obama found himself locked in an icy stare with Putin, his reception at the G20 summit was cold. Security firms named Russian Federation as the suspect in a hack of USA political party groups including the Democratic National Committee.
Turkey and Russia normalised ties in June after Erdogan sent a letter to Putin expressing regret over the shooting down of a Russian war plane on the Syrian border last November which had caused an unprecedented crisis in their relations.
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“Given the gaps of trust that exist, that’s a tough negotiation, and we haven’t yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work”, he said. “And frankly we have more capacity than any other country, both offensively and defensively”. But our goal is not to suddenly, in the cyber arena, duplicate a cycle of escalation that we saw when it comes to other arms races in the past, but rather to start instituting some norms so that everybody is acting responsibly.
