Obama, Putin exchange brief words in Beijing
November 10, 2014, 9:16 pm

The two presidents, including their host Chinese President Xi Jinping, will next meet at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia

Russian officials are keeping open the possibility that a brief encounter between President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit will build to more extensive talks next week.

“There were no talks. They greeted each other,” presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media on Monday.

“They exchanged a few lines. The presidents assume they will have a chance to talk on the sidelines [of the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia] in the coming days.”

Media reports described the two presidents, who have previously exchanged terse words over the situation in Ukraine and Syria, as shaking hands and speaking briefly. They did not discuss any of the issues that have strained ties between both powers in recent months.

“They only had a brief encounter where they didn’t have time to cover issues,” a member of the US delegation told reporters. “We’ll let you know if they interact/cover issues tomorrow,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

According to Dmitry Babich, a senior Russian journalist and analyst, Obama had indicated In the buildup to the APEC summit that he had no plans to meet his Russian counterpart in Beijing or Brisbane.

At the same time, Obama reiterated his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal Washington is negotiating with 11 nations in the region, excluding China and Russia.

On the eve of the APEC summit in Beijing, Putin highlighted his opposition to the TPP and praised APEC’s role in maintaining stability in the region.

“When some countries prefer to act on the international arena using the methods of political, economic and often even coercive pressure the role of APEC as an effective coordinating mechanism for building a new regional architecture is indispensable,” Putin said referring to US and EU sanctions on Moscow for the Ukraine crisis.

Source: Agencies