After taking jabs at each other from the United Nations podium on Monday, President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down one-on-one for 90 minutes Monday evening and seemed unable to find any agreement on key issues, including exactly how to move forward together on Syria and Ukraine.
A senior Obama administration official insisted that the two leaders “worked through a lot of different issues” at their meeting. But the official also seemed to acknowledge that both leaders used the meeting mostly to outline their known differences.
“With respect to Ukraine, the president reiterated our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine government,” the official told reporters afterward, according to a pool report. “Mr. Obama also noted positive opportunity to implement the Minsk accord in the next few months.”
Obama chastised Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine when he addressed the General Assembly Monday morning.
Obama also called on the international community to end the violence in Syria and replace dictator Bashar al-Assad with a government that represents all Syria’s factions peacefully. However, Putin still believes that backing Assad, who he thinks he can keep extremists such as ISIS at bay, is the proper course.
“I think the Russians certainly understood the importance of there being a political resolution in Syria and there being a process that pursues a political resolution,” the official said. “We have a difference about what the outcome of that process would be,” the official said, referring to Assad’s future.
“This was not a situation where either one of them was seeking to score points in a meeting,” the official said after the media spent the day scrutinizing their every interaction, wondering if they clinked glasses during a toast and whether they shook hands. (The answer to both questions was yes.)
“I think there was a shared desire to figure out a way in which we can address the situation in Syria,” the official said.
“We have clarity on their objectives,” the official said, referring to Moscow’s military buildup in Syria. “Their objectives are to go after ISIL and to support the government.”
Earlier in the day Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Tuesday he will meet individually with two more leaders, Cuban President Raul Castro and Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
