Putin & Trump meet on sidelines of G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany

RT
Fri, 07 Jul 2017 19:02 UTC

© Carlos Barria / Reuters

Russia's President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have held a much-anticipated first meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany, which lasted more than two hours.

The meeting was initially planned to last for around 30-40 minutes, international media reported earlier in the day.

"President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it's going very well," Trump told the media during the photo session.

"We've had some very, very good talks, we are going to have a talk now and obviously that will continue," Trump added, saying there are hopes of "a lot of very positive things happening."

"It's an honor to be with you, thank you," Trump concluded, offering his hand to Putin.

"Spasibo [thank you]," the US leader added in Russian.

Addressing Trump, Putin then said that although the two of them have "several times talked over the phone, including on some very important bilateral and international issues," phone talks were "obviously not enough."

Meetings in person are "necessary" if the two countries want to resolve the "most pressing issues," Putin added.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were also present at the meeting.

In May, Russian top diplomat Lavrov met with the US president at the White House, where they talked for about 40 minutes. Since Trump took office in January, the US secretary of state has also made a visit to Russia, where Tillerson held talks with both Lavrov and Putin.

Comment: As the G20 summit kicked off in Germany, the leaders had their first short contact, shaking hands and confirming the upcoming full-fledged meeting.

Donald Trump announced the meeting over Twitter, while Putin's spokesman provided confirmation.

"They shook hands and said that soon they will hold a separate meeting, that they will see each other soon," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin has said that it will not be a brief contact on the sidelines, but "a full-fledged 'sit down' meeting." Previously, the leaders spoke only by phone.

In the lead up to the meeting, Moscow and Washington have voiced some of their expectations. The Kremlin sees the event as an opportunity to "establish a working dialogue" between Putin and Trump, which is vital for resolving "a critical mass of conflicts and problems," according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He also said that the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine and the ways of resolving them may be discussed, among other issues, in the first meeting between the two leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he discussed at the first meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday the situation in Ukraine and Syria, the fight against terrorism and cybersecurity.

"I had a very lengthy conversation with the President of the United States, there were a lot of issues such as Ukraine, Syria, other problems, some bilateral issues," Putin said at the beginning of his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"We again returned to the issues of fighting terrorism and cybersecurity," Putin added.

On Friday, the G20 summit kicked off in the German city of Hamburg, bringing together the leaders of major world countries and developing economies.