Speaking at a gathering of leaders of the G20 in China, Erdogan said he had called specifically for a “no-fly zone” in talks with the Russian and US leaders.
Advertisement
The tough talks were a reminder that the “reset” of Russia relations that Obama pioneered at the start of his administration is now but a memory, while Putin has also taken advantage of chaos in the Middle East to reinstate Russian influence with Syria and Iran.
Touching upon the Putin-Obama meeting, Oganesyan suggested that despite Obama’s desire to reach a consensus on the Syrian issue, he first and foremost sought to play up to Democratic Party voters ahead of the presidential elections in the US.
Luigi Gambardella, president of ChinaEU, a business association based in Brussels, talked about two things in Xi’s G20 speech that impressed him most, one being digital economy as a new drive of global growth and the other free trade.
In his tenth and final meeting, the US President said: “More than ever our economies are interconnected and we’ve got more work to do to keep the global economy growing”.
Peskov reported earlier that Putin and Obama had conducted brief informal discussions on several occasions on Sunday, in the framework of the eleventh G20 summit. Lavrov and Kerry were engaged in a conversation.
“We need to protect the interests of the members of the European Union that want to stay together, not the one which wants to leave”, said Tusk.
Obama said the U.S. was committed to “investigating and bringing the perpetrators of these illegal actions to justice” and assured Erdogan of American cooperation with Turkish authorities.
A sit-down between Mr Obama and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan also laid bare the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies’ diverging interests in Syria, with Mr Erdogan pointedly challenging Obama on USA support for Kurds fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
The test prompted a quick meeting between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Hangzhou, and they agreed to cooperate on monitoring the situation, a Japanese statement said. But Obama has expressed skepticism that Russian Federation would hold to its agreement.
Putin spoke at a press conference following the G20 summit in China, and said “we’re on the right track”, adding that an agreement could be forthcoming within days.
“This is not a decision against the United States of America”, said Juncker.
Downing Street said the 30-minute meeting was “warm” and Mr Xi even referred to the United Kingdom on finishing second in the Rio Olympics medal table – ahead of China.
Advertisement
The tensions continued throughout the trip as Chinese officials severely restricted the media’s ability to attend Obama’s G20 events.
