Putin threatens to punish persons responsible for 'failure' of meeting with Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a formal meeting with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam did not take place due to “protocol clashes”, and that the relevant team members would be punished, Interfax reports.
“As for an individual meeting, firstly, it was related to Mr Trump’s work schedule, and my schedule, and certain protocol formalities, which our team was regrettably unable to handle. Well, they will be punished for this,” Putin said.
“Nothing serious happened. We spoke during today’s meeting, touched bases, and by and large we discussed everything we wanted to,” the Russian president added.
According to him, they mostly discussed summit-related topics.
“We spoke about matters that were being discussed at the APEC summit itself. We spoke about how to use the new opportunities presented by a digital economy to develop economic ties,” Putin noted.
He also mentioned that he and Trump had agreed on a joint statement on Syria.
Trump left the ceremonial reception in honor of the APEC summit leaders before it ended, without speaking to Putin.
At the start of November, Trump said that he might meet with Putin at the summit. Trump believes that the Russian president could help the US in Syria and with North Korea. The US leader remarked that he needs to talk to Putin about Ukraine.