Trump meeting with Putin at G20 summit, Positive atmosphere amid doubts of rapprochement
Moscow – North-Press Agency
Fahim Al-Sorani
Talks between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the US President Donald Trump in Osaka, Japan, ended with the stress of the two leaders that bilateral meetings are important, not only for their own countries but for the whole world.
The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit had lasted for two hours, dealt with several issues, most notably strategic stability and the situations related to Syria, Iran, and Ukraine, according to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The two presidents had met for the last time in Finland’s Helsinki last year, and they were due to meet in Paris at the end of the same year to participate in the commemoration of 100 years of the end of World War I, but the withdrawal of the United States from the medium and short-range missile agreement, led to the cancellation of the meeting.
Reviving communication
Russian analysts, such as Yevgeny Bin, an international affairs analyst, believes that the mere revival of the Putin-Trump meetings is a guarantee for controlling and reducing the international tremors in itself.
In an interview with North-Press, Yevgeny Bin said that the extension of the meeting for an additional 20 minutes, is an indication that the mutual interest in recent international developments, calls for the re-activation of the bilateral meetings on more than one level, especially the extension of the international crises for years as in Syria, Iran, and Ukraine, proved that unilateral attitudes and steps did not lead to results or to end conflicts.
On the other hand, Victor Olivić, the researcher at the Center for Contemporary Politics, sees that the tension and difference in views between Moscow and Washington will remain, especially in complex issues such as the Syrian crisis, the nuclear crisis in North Korea and the dangerous escalation between the United States and Iran, as well as the sharp differences in views between Moscow and Washington over the crisis in Ukraine and arms control.
The ball is in Washington’s court
Olivić points out that Trump’s response to Putin’s invitation to visit Moscow in order to participate in the victory celebrations against Nazism in World War II, may give a signal from the US that it wants to return to the negotiating table with Moscow and creating consensus that reduces the tension experienced by the bilateral relations and the international conditions.
The G20 summit is being held in Osaka, Japan at a time where Russian-American relations are at their worst shape since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union due to conflicting positions regarding many issues such as Syria, Iran, Ukraine, and Venezuela, as well as Washington’s accusations of Moscow for the intervention in the recent presidential elections in the United States.