In talks that Obama described as “blunt” and “businesslike”, the two leaders met after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry met for the second time in a week to narrow their differences over the Syrian conflict.
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Obama added that now the gaps have not been closed in negotiations between Russian Federation and the United States in a way that they think would “actually work”.
Leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Theresa May to Xi highlighted in news conferences and meetings the need to improve the lives of ordinary citizens to garner support for increasingly unpopular trade agreements.
The US president, on his part, said easing the humanitarian situation in Syria would pave the way for a political solution, adding that a settlement of the crisis would include all parties directly or indirectly involved in the conflict.
The continued cooperation between the USA and China on addressing climate change not only signifies how seriously our two nations take this existential threat to our planet, but also sends important signals to the rest of world that meaningful action to prevent the worst possible scenarios from climate change is possible when we work together.
Russian Federation is acting to support the continued rule of President Bashar Al-Assad, while the United States is supporting and arming rebels dedicated to his overthrow.
The pair’s chat followed a 90-minute showdown over the same contentious topic between Mr Putin and USA counterpart President Barack Obama.
Mr Obama didn’t detail the trouble spots, although he suggested the United States had concerns about Russian Federation holding up its end of the bargain and enforcing the terms.
A cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by Lavrov and Kerry in February unraveled within weeks, with Washington accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of violating the pact.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel chats with President Barack Obama during the opening ceremony of the G-20 Leaders Summit on September 4, 2016, in Hangzhou, China.
A senior State Department official said the talks hit a stumble on Saturday when Russian Federation pulled back from agreement on issues the US negotiators believed had been settled. The Kurds are the most effective US-backed anti-ISIL force, but the Turks consider them to be terrorists.
As the president was greeted by his Chinese hosts, Obama’s aides and accompanying journalists clashed with a Chinese official as they tried to watch the ceremony.
Chinese authorities imposed unusually tight security on the event, with vast swaths of the city closed to normal traffic, but Obama himself downplayed the incident, leading China’s nationalist Global Times newspaper to claim in a Sunday editorial that the hype was due to Western media, “which often makes a fuss over trifling issues”.
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Despite emerging from the tense talks without a breakthrough, Mr Obama touted the talk as “productive” and said there was some alignment with his Russian counterpart on Syria.
