Obama will become the first sitting USA president to travel to Laos later Monday, where he plans to push for closer economic ties with Laos and Southeast Asia, and raise human rights abuses in the one-party communist state.
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Russia, however, considers several of the groups the USA backs to be “terrorist” organizations and, therefore, as legitimate targets.
Obama, Xi and other leaders called during the meeting for governments to defend free trade.
The Washington Post said Obama’s bumpy landing in China was “a fitting reflection of how the relationship between these two world powers has become frayed and fraught with frustration”. “We haven’t yet closed the gaps”.
At the press conference Monday, Obama also addressed concerns about cybersecurity, acknowledging that the US has “had problems with cyber intrusions” from Russian Federation and other countries.
Russian Federation has insisted that it can not agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al-Qaeda linked militants they overlap with in some areas.
He highlighted the need to provide humanitarian relief to those in Syria, and said the nations are working on a instituting a “meaningful, serious, viable cessation of hostilities” there.
There had been hopes of a breakthrough in stemming the Syria conflict after the U.S. said it was close to a deal with Russian Federation.
The summit got off to a rocky start Saturday when there was no staircase at the airport for Obama to exit his plane. United States officials believe that Russian hackers are responsible for the recent Democratic National Committee breach, which some fear was meant to influence the upcoming presidential election. Mr Putin has denied his government was involved, but cheered the release of the information.
Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said China should be congratulated for placing innovation at the heart of the G20 presidency. Obama met earlier with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the same issue.
The hard diplomacy on Syria set the tone for an uneven few days for Mr Obama on his last tour through Asia as president.
China and the United States, the world’s two biggest carbon emitters, announced on Saturday that they have ratified the Paris agreement which seeks to limit global warming well below 2°C.
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But the focus on climate quickly gave way to the failed Syria talks.
