Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Friday held a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
THE ECONOMY WAS DISCUSSED IN BILATERAL TALKS
According to a Kremlin statement, the two leaders discussed the situations in Iran, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela. The closed-door meeting lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes, the Kremlin said.
“We will have a very interesting discussion, which will include such issues as trade, commerce, disarmament, protectionism, various other issues, and all this will be built on very good relations that we will have,” Trump said, starting the meeting with Putin.
Relations between Russia and the US have significantly deteriorated since the Ukrainian crisis of 2014, even as Trump has enjoyed an unusually close and trusting relationship with Putin.
US introduced several rounds of diplomatic and economic sanctions against Russia following the annexation of Crimea, a move viewed by the UN General Assembly as well as Turkey as illegal.
The situation took on another dimension in 2016 after Trump’s election win. Russia was accused of interference in the US elections, aiming to help Trump to become president as Moscow saw him as a more favorable candidate than his rival Hillary Clinton.
On Wednesday, asked by reporters about his upcoming talk with Putin, Trump said: “What I say to him is none of your business.”
Trump has come under fire for failing to include Cabinet members in his meetings with Putin, not briefing his own team about their conversations, and not issuing readouts of their talks, a standard diplomatic practice before Trump took office.
