Trump-Putin meeting deepens divisions in US establishment on Russia policy
By
Barry Grey
8 July 2017
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for more than two hours Friday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, amid the growing threat of a military clash between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, whether in Syria or Eastern Europe. After the meeting, which lasted far longer than the half-hour that had been planned, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in separate statements announced an agreement on a ceasefire and establishment of a so-called “de-escalation zone” in southwestern Syria.
Lavrov said the ceasefire was set to take effect at noon Damascus time on July 9. Tillerson called it a “defined agreement” and added that the two leaders had a “lengthy discussion of other areas in Syria where we can work together.”
At a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following his meeting with Trump, Putin said other topics the two discussed included Ukraine, cybersecurity and fighting terrorism.
On North Korea, Tillerson acknowledged there was no agreement, telling reporters, “The Russians see it a little differently than we do, so we’re going to continue those discussions and ask them to do more.” But he described Trump and Putin as having “positive chemistry” in their first meeting, and said their discussions had been “very constructive.”
The US secretary of state said that Trump opened the meeting by raising the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Trump, he said, returned to the question several times and pressed it “robustly.” But after Putin repeated his previous denials of any Russian meddling, the two agreed to…