U.S. secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who met on Sunday to discuss Syria, held a fresh round of negotiations on Monday morning but this too ended without an agreement, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
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The comments by a foreign ministry spokeswoman were in response to questions whether China, which is hosting a G20 Summit meeting in its eastern city of Hangzhou, intentionally failed to provide Obama’s plane with a staircase, an event that has fuelled speculation it was a diplomatic snub. But “I wouldn’t over-crank the significance of it”, Obama said of the alleged snub.
For weeks Washington and Moscow had been trying to reach a deal to control the violence between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian Federation, and the US-backed rebel forces.
“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 a news conference, Obama said the breakdown of a previous cessation of hostilities agreement had prompted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resume bombing opposition forces “with impunity”. 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. “However, we must ensure that it is an effective agreement”, the official said. Putin has denied his government was involved, but cheered the release of the information.
In a joint statement, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Britain, Japan, Russia and other Group of 20 economies pledged to boost sluggish global growth by promoting innovation and to strengthen the global financial system.
The two leaders also discussed Ukraine during their meetings at the G20; Obama says he emphasized that USA sanctions against Russian Federation wouldn’t be lifted until a peace agreement is implemented in Ukraine.
Mrs May said relations with China were not “just about” the partnership over Hinkley.
The administration, which has always been reluctant to intervene directly in the civil war, nonetheless thinks that it is a distraction to what it considers the more important, separate battle against the Islamic State – in both Syria and Iraq – and that it must be resolved.
To the frustration of the White House, these weighty matters seemed to be overshadowed by a made-for-social-media moment from Obama’s arrival at the airport.
There was no mention of a global stimulus or other joint action, which officials said earlier was unworkable because economic conditions vary widely from country to country.
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Obama’s next stop is Laos, where he’ll promote his effort to deepen ties to Southeast Asia.
