Trump Met Briefly With Putin At G20 Meeting
After avoiding Vladimir Putin for most of the day at the G-20 summit of global leaders, President Donald Trump had an “informal” conversation with the Russian president, the White House said Saturday.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the two spoke at a cultural dinner last night scheduled in Buenos Aires for the leaders and their wives.
The dinner, which took place in the city’s famous Teatro Colón theater, was closed to reporters.
“As is typical at multilateral events, President Trump and the first lady had a number of informal conversations with world leaders at the dinner last night, including President Putin,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders did not provide additional detail about the extent of the meeting, or what was discussed. Trump drew fire for a similar encounter over dinner at the G-20 summit in Hamburg last year when the White House disclosed days later that the two presidents met without any U.S. aides present.
Putin later told reporters that he also met with Trump briefly on Saturday at that the two discussed the situation in Ukraine.
“I answered his questions about the incident in the Black Sea. He has his position. I have my own. We stayed in our own positions,” Putin told reporters, according to the Associated Press.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for information about the second meeting.
