Russian and Turkish officials discussed the outlooks for lifting Russia’s ban on Turkish food imports as part of their rapprochement process on Sunday, the Kremlin spokesman added.
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After the meeting with Putin, Obama recalled the failure of a previous cessation of hostilities that the United States had brokered with Russian Federation.
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”.
The U.S. backs some of the rebel groups against Assad, seeing them as relative moderates.
“We’ve had problems of cyber-intrusions from Russian Federation and other countries in the past”, Obama said, “and we’re moving into a new era here where a number of countries have significant capacities”.
“Yet, given the gap of trust that exists, that is a tough negotiation and we have not closed the gap yet”.
On Monday, Obama didn’t provide details about where his negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin broke down, The Associated Press reports.
The official says Obama and Putin clarified the remaining gaps in the talks, which largely involve how the deal would be implemented.
The hard diplomacy on Syria set the tone for an uneven few days for Obama on his final tour of Asia as president.
Obama met with Putin for 90 minutes in an unscheduled meeting that was described by both sides as longer than usual for the sidelines of a G20 summit.
With his narrowed eyes, dad-of-two Obama’s icy expression channels his best “I’m not angry, just disappointed” face.
He is expected to announce new aid to help clean up tens of millions of unexploded bombs that dot the country’s mountain villages and fields, keeping them out of reach of unsuspecting people.
As NPR’s David Welna reported earlier this summer, Secretary of State John Kerry has been pushing for a deal between the US and Russian Federation that would have the two countries coordinate their military efforts to target mutual enemies in Syria.
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.
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.
Two of the most powerful men in the world came face to face at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, and gave a whole new meaning to the phrase Cold War – if this iconic photograph is anything to go by.
At the start of his trip, a logistical spat over missing airline airplane stairs needed for Obama to reach the red carpet at Hangzhou airport and verbal altercations between United States and Chinese officials grabbed headlines.
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In the meantime, as he headed for Laos, the next stop on his weeklong trip to Asia, Obama canceled a scheduled meeting with the president of the Philippines, after the latter publicly cursed while warning him to not raise questions about reported death squad operations in his country against suspected drug dealers.
