Formal meetings President Trump had scheduled with the leaders of Turkey and South Korea at this weekend’s G-20 summit have been downgraded to informal discussions.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Buenos Aires for the gathering of world leaders, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders reportedly said the scheduled bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and South Korean President Moon Jae-in would be “pull-asides” instead of formal sitdowns. But in response to reports that the meetings had been canceled, Sanders tweeted that they remained on the schedule, though she did not deny that they were now informal.
The change in Trump’s schedule comes after he announced via Twitter that he decided to cancel a bilateral meeting at the G-20 with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing the Russian military’s seizure of Ukrainian ships and sailors.
The president left Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning for the summit in Argentina, which is scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday.
White House officials detailed a packed agenda for Trump during the meeting of world leaders, but absent was a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The president told reporters he “just didn’t have time” for a formal sit-down with the crown prince.
The change in Trump’s meeting with Erdogan comes in the wake of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Turkish officials said early on that Saudi leaders were behind Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 disappearance and death. Turkey also shared recordings relating to the journalist’s murder with the U.S. and other countries. But Trump has resisted concluding that the Saudi crown prince ordered the killing.
