This meeting was eagerly awaited. American President Donald trump and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin spoke on Friday during the G20 summit.
Key question: who will be the strongest leader — trump or Putin, given Putin’s tendency to control and manipulate. The lack of diplomatic and political experience trump his unwillingness to prepare for the meeting inspired very little faith that he will get at least some serious concessions from Putin.
The meeting was scheduled for half an hour. But lasted more than two, so the leaders found a lot to talk about. In addition, the meeting was attended by: Secretary General Rex Tillerson, the Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and two interpreters. What little we know about the meeting, and Lavrov said Tillerson at a press conference after the meeting.
Russian interference in American elections
Tillerson noted that trump put pressure on Putin over Russia’s interference in the electoral process in 2016-m to year, but seem to have accepted Putin’s assurances that nothing like that happened.
In addition, according to the Secretary General, the White house does not “miss the issue”, but wants to concentrate on that “to ensure fulfilment of the obligations of” non-interference in the future.
Serious question after the meeting: if trump to blame Putin. Obviously, he did it, but it is worth noting how easily the American President had agreed with Putin’s statement about his innocence and the belief that this will never happen again.
As reported in the “Twitter” journalists, Lavrov told a little not that, speaking about trump’s reaction: “Lavrov says that trump has accused Russia of hacking. Moscow and Washington will establish a working group on cyber security”.
“According to Lavrov, Putin said that Russia has not interfered in the elections, and trump agreed with this,” tweeted American journalist Lucian Kim.
Amid doubts about the reliability of U.S. intelligence on this issue that trump has shown in Poland before, this further undermined the credibility of the service. What trump has done this during a personal meeting with Putin, may only exacerbate the mistrust of the CIA and FBI to the White House.
It may look like a clear victory for Putin, who left the meeting without serious accusations that Russia systematically violates the sovereignty and integrity of another country.
Syria
Trump was a good opportunity to use the meeting to put pressure on Putin over his support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Although any substantial agreement about how to resolve one of the most complex conflicts in the region, it is unlikely that the leaders agreed to support the ceasefire in the area of South-West Syria. Other details we don’t know, but Tillerson acknowledged that the agreement on cease-fire in Syria very soon will be failed.
Although Russia and the US is interested in fighting Islamic state, they can’t come to agreement on most aspects of the conflict, including on what is the future of Assad and what role will they play Iran.
Recently trump has strengthened the anti-Iranian rhetoric and, it seems that Russia’s relations with Iran will soon become an important point in the conflict between the US and Russia.
The transcript of the meeting available. But if these issues Putin is not pressed, then it is definitely a lost opportunity.
Common interests
Although Lavrov and Tillerson stressed the common interests of the two countries, neither Ukraine nor the continuation of the nuclear crisis in North Korea do not belong to them.
North Korea is testing an Intercontinental ballistic missile, and it was guaranteed to be one of the main topics of conversation. Russia opposed the common position in the G20 and blocked a resolution of the UN Security Council, calling for “serious measures” in response to the test.
So, what do we do with this long-awaited meeting?
The details of the conversation very little, and Lavrov controls the narrative, and it shows a picture of trump at this meeting had achieved little.
Putin left, received a veiled agreement to forget about the interference in the electoral process, not promising anything but “dialogue” in the Ukrainian question, without a deal on North Korea and no real progress in the case of the horrible human tragedy in Syria.
Given Tillerson’s statement about the “positive chemistry” between the two leaders, it is difficult not to recall the statement of George Bush that he “looked into Putin’s soul” and not conclude that Putin is again expertly beat the American President.
