Hamburg: President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed brokering "commitments of noninterference" in the US political system during a lengthy face-to-face meeting in Germany, the first in-person encounter between the two leaders about Russia's alleged role in the 2016 election.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who attended the two-hour-and-fifteen-minute meeting, said it did not focus on the United States moving to punish Russia for the allegations that it hacked and leaked information that would help Mr Trump win the election. Instead, Mr Tillerson said the two leaders discussed "how do we move forward" regarding the election-hacking issue.
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Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin meet each other for the first time at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Vision: Reuters
He said the White House was not "dismissing the issue" but wanted to focus on "how do we secure a commitment" that there will not be interference in the future.
Mr Tillerson's account appeared to conflict with that of his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said afterwards that the US president accepted Mr Putin's denial regarding the hacking.
"US President Trump said that he heard firm assertions from Russian President Putin that it is not true and that Russian authorities have not meddled in the elections," Mr Lavrov said at G20 summit.
"He (Trump) said that he accepts these assertions. That's it," Mr Lavrov said.
Mr Tillerson's comments came during a briefing with reporters following the highly anticipated meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin. He said they also agreed to a "de-escalation agreement" regarding a section of southwestern Syria. Jordan was also part of that agreement.
Syria's lengthy civil war has left more than 400,000 people dead and led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands more.
![President Donald Trump finally met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170709125440im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/7/w/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx77wf.png/1499459252615.jpg)
The United States and Syria have supported opposite parties during the civil war. Russia has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the United States has supported and trained groups that oppose Mr Assad.
Past cease-fires in Syria have not lasted long. Mr Tillerson suggested he was skeptical that the cease-fire would endure, saying, "We'll see what happens."
![Trump's meeting with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went for more than 2 hours.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170709125440im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/7/w/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx77wf.png/1499501753724.jpg)
He also said that the US position is that there will be a political transition in Syria that will lead to the ouster of Assad, but he said the circumstances for this are unclear.
Mr Tillerson said the United States and Russia agreed that working groups set up by both countries would follow up on the political interference issue.
![First Lady Melania Trump was sent in to try to wrap up the meeting.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170709125440im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/7/w/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx77wf.png/1499476946793.jpg)
Mr Tillerson would not say whether Mr Trump flatly told Mr Putin that Russia interfered in the election, saying instead: "He pressed him and then felt like at this point, how do we go forward?"
The meeting lasted much longer than expected. At one point, Mr Trump's wife entered the room to try to see if it could wrap up soon, but it continued much longer.
"We went another hour [after] she came in to see us, so clearly she failed," Mr Tillerson said.
Mr Lavrov told Russian reporters that Moscow was pleased with the outcome of the meeting.
"My feeling is that it's been confirmed that the presidents, both the Russian and the American, are driven above all by the countries' national interests and that they understand these interests primarily as looking for mutually beneficial agreements and not trying to act out some confrontation scenarios, not trying to create problems out of nothing," Mr Lavrov said.
The world watched closely as the two met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in a meeting whose length far exceeded expectations and suggested that a broad range of topics may have been covered.
"I had a very long conversation with the president of the United States," Mr Putin told reporters after the meeting. "Many issues had accumulated, including Ukraine, Syria and other problems, some bilateral issues. We again went back to counterterrorism and cyber security issues."
The mood was genial as Mr Putin and Mr Trump, sitting side by side, addressed reporters before the meeting.
"It's an honour to be with you," Mr Trump said.
"We've had some very very good talks. We're going to have a talk now and obviously that will continue," Mr Trump said. "We look forward to a lot of very positive happenings for Russia and for the United States and for everyone concerned."
Mr Putin, referring to the phone conversations the two presidents have had, said "phone conversations are never enough definitely."
"I'm delighted to be able to meet you personally," Mr Putin said. "And I hope that, as you have said, our meetings will yield positive results."
Mr Trump and Mr Putin were joined in the meeting by Mr Lavrov and Mr Tillerson. The contrast was clear: the Russian side has decades of diplomatic and leadership experience under its belt, while Mr Trump and Mr Tillerson are political newcomers despite extensive international business ties.
Mr Trump on Thursday once again downplayed the notion that Russia meddled on his behalf in the 2016 election, which would seem to play into one of the Kremlin's main objectives. Any signal from Mr Trump that Moscow and Washington can put aside past differences and forge a new relationship is a victory for Mr Putin.
In two tweets earlier Friday, Mr Trump said he was looking forward to the meeting, and that "I will represent our country well and fight for its interests!"
The Kremlin has said that Mr Putin wants the United States to hand back two compounds that the previous administration seized in late December in retaliation for Russia's actions in the US campaign.
The Trump administration has already indicated it might return those compounds, which the Obama administration said were being used to gather intelligence. But Mr Trump is facing bipartisan opposition at home not to lift sanctions against what many in Washington see as an adversary intent on weakening democratic institutions and diminishing US global leadership.
Washington Post with Reuters