Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the Group of 20 summit in an effort to reach a ceasefire deal in Syria, but ultimately, both walked away without an agreement.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that there had been some “alignment” over Syria with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama after talks in China, insisting the two sides could reach a deal soon.
The US and Russian Federation tried and failed to strike a deal on stemming the violence in the disastrous five-year conflict, even as a string of bomb attacks hit across the country, underlining the urgency of the task.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have been trying to hammer out a deal for about two weeks, and kept at negotiations during the G-20 talks.
In a concession to Beijing, the statement doesn’t mention China by name and says excess steel capacity is a global issue.
“This is not a decision against the United States of America”, Juncker said.
The meeting got off to a rocky start Saturday when there was no staircase at the airport for President Barack Obama to exit his plane. “It is indisputable that it would create a better deal for us than the status quo”, Obama said.
The joint announcement on climate action by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his USA counterpart Barack Obama “represents important progress – but also highlights where continued leadership will be critical”, Keohane added, citing their pledged support for a global market-based measure to ensure carbon-neutral growth in worldwide aviation from 2020 on.
But the USA has always been wary on the military coordination part of the deal, because it says Russian Federation has mainly targeted moderate, US -backed opposition groups in a bid to prop up Assad. Obama said the aim was to reach “meaningful, serious, verifiable cessations of hostilities in Syria”.
But beyond the Islamic State and al-Qaida, the two powers have conflicting views about who fits in that category.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he proposed, to the USA and Russian Federation, the setting up of a no-fly zone in northern Syria, after Ankara-backed fighters pushed the Islamic State group from the border area. “Only through reforms in line with the changing realities can the G20 retain its vitality”, said Xi.
Obama and Putin also discussed the conflict in Ukraine – a crisis that Obama had earlier discussed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
Mr Obama’s meeting with Mr Putin came as the Russian leader is playing a prominent role in the U.S. presidential campaign.
Trudeau also held slightly more formal sit-downs on the sidelines of the summit with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the European Union, the OECD and Singapore.
Beijing made trade a theme of the gathering in this lakeside city southwest of Shanghai but faces complaints that a flood of low-priced Chinese steel into global markets threatens USA and European jobs, propelling the rise of political movements that promise to curb trade. The Kurds are the most effective US-backed anti-Daesh force, but the Turks consider them to be terrorists.
The tensions continued throughout the trip as Chinese officials severely restricted the media’s ability to attend Obama’s G20 events.
Obama reiterated that such discussions would take a back seat to Washington’s efforts to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with Asia as well as a broader trade pact with Europe. Duterte on Monday warned that Obama should not question him, during a scheduled meeting Tuesday, about extrajudicial killings in his country.
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“If and when we have a meeting, this is something that is going to be brought up”, Obama said, referring to a spate of extrajudicial killings of purported drug dealers that have transpired since Duterte took officer earlier this year.
