{"id":35429,"date":"2017-07-19T04:56:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=35429"},"modified":"2017-07-19T04:56:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T04:56:00","slug":"trump-undisclosed-hour-long-meeting-putin-g-20-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/lifestyle\/trump-undisclosed-hour-long-meeting-putin-g-20-summit.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump had undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at G-20 summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump had undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at G-20 summit<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump had undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at G-20 summit:- After his much-publicized two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladi\u00admir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Trump chatted informally with the Russian leader for up to an additional hour later the same day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The second meeting, undisclosed at the time, took place at a dinner for G-20 leaders, a senior administration official said. At some point during the meal, Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump approached alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">In a statement issued Tuesday night after published reports of the conversation, the White House said that \u201cthere was no \u2018second meeting\u2019 between President Trump and President Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner. The insinuation that the White House has tried to \u2018hide\u2019 a second meeting,\u201d it said, \u201cis false, malicious and absurd.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">\u201cAll the leaders\u201d circulated around the room throughout the dinner, and \u201cPresident Trump spoke with many leaders,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAs the dinner was concluding,\u201d it said, Trump spoke \u201cbriefly\u201d with Putin, who was seated next to first lady Melania Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The dinner conversation with Putin was first reported Monday by Ian Bremmer, president of the New York-based Eurasia Group, in a newsletter to group clients. Bremmer said the meeting began \u201chalfway\u201d into the meal and lasted \u201croughly an hour.\u201d The senior administration official said it began with the dessert course, but did not comment on its length.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Pool reporters covering Trump noted that his and Putin\u2019s motorcades were among the last to leave the event, departing within minutes of each other just before midnight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump lashed out at the media for reporting on his undisclosed meeting with Putin, saying the \u201cfake news\u201d was \u201csick\u201d and \u201cdishonest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">But the president distorted what news outlets, including The Washington Post, had reported, saying the story was about a \u201csecret dinner\u201d when in fact it was reported as an undisclosed meeting with Putin at a dinner of the G-20 leaders and their spouses. Trump also incorrectly stated that journalists knew about his meeting with Putin; in fact, they did not until Tuesday, when the White House confirmed that the two presidents met during the dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">In the first of two tweets, Trump wrote: \u201cFake News story of secret dinner with Putin is \u2018sick.\u2019 All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump then tweeted, \u201cThe Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The dinner encounter appeared to underscore the extent to which Trump was eager throughout the summit to cultivate a friendship with Putin. During last year\u2019s election campaign, he spoke admiringly of the Russian leader and at times seemed captivated by him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Meeting each other face-to-face for the first time at the Hamburg summit, the two presidents seemed to have a chemistry in their more formal bilateral session, evidenced by the fact that, despite being scheduled for 35 minutes, it continued for more than two hours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">But Trump\u2019s newly revealed conversation with Putin at the G-20 dinner is likely to stoke criticism \u2014 including perhaps from some fellow Republicans in Congress \u2014 that he is too cozy with the leader of a major U.S. adversary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Putin\u2019s official interpreter provided the only Russian-English interpretation, the White House statement said, because the president was seated next to the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. \u201cEach couple was allowed one translator,\u201d it said. \u201cThe American translator accompanying President Trump spoke Japanese.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The only version of the conversation provided to White House aides was that given by Trump himself, said the administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the White House statement was issued. Reporters traveling with the White House were not informed during the trip, and there was no formal readout of the chat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The official Trump-Putin meeting, earlier in the day, led to confusion over whether Trump agreed, as Putin later implied, to accept the Kremlin\u2019s denial of any wrongdoing regarding interference in last year\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">That meeting was attended by the leaders and their two interpreters, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Tillerson later said Trump twice asked Putin if the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia had meddled in the race were true, and Putin twice denied it, so they moved on to other subjects of importance to the bilateral relationship, including Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Russia\u2019s activities during the election, along with allegations that members of Trump\u2019s campaign may have coordinated with Kremlin attempts to tilt the race in Trump\u2019s direction, are the subject of investigations in Congress and by a special counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">In Trump\u2019s own account of the formal meeting, he repeated earlier comments that another country might have been responsible for cyber-interference in the election. \u201cI\u2019m not saying it wasn\u2019t Russia. What I\u2019m saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is,\u201d he told reporters on Air Force One as he returned from a visit to France last week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">\u201cYou know, China is very good at this,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump also said that Putin was unlikely to have preferred him over Hillary Clinton as president, since his goals include taking international energy business away from Russia and building up the U.S. military.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The dinner at the G-20 summit, held July 7-8, occurred hours after Trump and Putin\u2019s lengthy formal meeting. Leaders and their spouses were invited to a musical performance at Hamburg\u2019s riverside concert venue, followed by an intimate dinner at which they were seated next to the spouse of one of their counterparts, rather than their own. Melania Trump was seated next to Putin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump, who is among the newest world leaders in the G-20, remained at the dinner for the entire night. He was among the last to leave \u2014 after the host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had already departed. Pool reporters with the president saw Putin\u2019s motorcade leave at 11:50 p.m., followed shortly by Trump, who departed the concert hall at 11:54 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Leaders who witnessed the meeting were \u201cbemused, nonplussed, befuddled\u201d by the animated conversation, held in full view \u2014 but apparently not within listening distance \u2014 of others present, Bremmer said by telephone. He said he spoke with two participants at the dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">One senior European official whose head of government was there played down the attention the Trump-Putin chat garnered, saying it was not unusual for leaders to circulate or \u201cwithdraw to a corner\u201d at such private gatherings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">\u201cPart of the rationale is the flurry of bilateral contacts that happen,\u201d the official said. \u201cI don\u2019t find it a sensation,\u201d he said of the lengthy dinner chat, although \u201cmaybe Trump and Putin are a little different\u201d from other attendees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">The administration official said there was nothing unusual in a meeting with no aides present, noting that Trump met alone with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and held a one-on-one session, with no aides present, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\">Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/trump-had-undisclosed-hour-long-meeting-with-putin-at-g20-summit\/2017\/07\/18\/39c18dd4-6bd0-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?utm_term=.de64439d8be9<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/lifestyle\/trump-undisclosed-hour-long-meeting-putin-g-20-summit.html\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 630px !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump had undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at G-20 summit Trump had undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at G-20 summit:- After his much-publicized two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladi\u00admir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Trump chatted informally with the Russian leader for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}