U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin threw schedules into disarray Friday as their planned 30-minute meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, went well past its allotted time.
The meeting lasted about two hours and twenty minutes, The Guardian reported.
The meeting was preceded by a photo op during which the leaders exchanged comments through translators.
“President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it’s going very well,” Trump said. “We’ve had some very, very good talks.”
Trump has spoken to Putin by phone since his election, but they have not had an official in-person visit before.
“We’re going to have a talk now and obviously that will continue,”Trump said, adding, “We look forward to a lot of very positive things happening for Russia, for the United States, and for everybody concerned.”
Putin referenced previous phone calls with Trump in his remarks.
“We spoke over the phone … but phone conversations are never enough, definitely,” he said.
“If you want to have a positive outcome in bilaterals and be able to resolve most international policy issues, that will really need personal meetings,” Putin said. “I’m delighted to be able to meet you personally, Mr President. And I hope, as you have said, our meeting will yield positive result,” Putin said.
Trump and Putin were joined behind closed doors by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and two translators.
Citing an unnamed source, The New York Times reported that Russia had wanted a larger staff presence at the meeting, but the Trump administration wanted a small group to minimize leaks and differing versions of the conversations.
Trump had met with Russian officials in May and then dealt with the fallout from news reports citing numerous versions of what was said in private,
The private meeting followed a very public handshake between the two men. Trump patted Putin on the arm as they shook hands, and later was seen patting the Russian leader on the back.
