The Presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama have held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The main themes of the first official meeting between the two world leaders in two years were the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine
Putin stressed that Russia will continue to support Syrian President Bashar Assad in the fight against the terrorist organization Islamic State, but does not plan ground operations in Syria. In addition, the head of the Russia state said that the role of the US in the conflict in Ukraine is quite large, as it is "standing behind Kiev."
The meeting, originally scheduled for 50 minutes, ran for 90 minutes. The conversation did not bring a breakthrough in the settlement of acute regional problems, but showed a recovery of dialogue at the highest level.
Speaking about Russia's participation in the resolution of the Syrian crisis, Putin stressed Russia will only take such a step in accordance with international law. "We believe that the work on fighting terrorism must go hand in hand with the political process in Syria, but any participation of Russian military units in ground operations is out of the question," RIA Novosti cited him as saying.
"As for our participation, we are thinking about it. We don't rule anything out. But if we are to act it will only be fully respecting international legal norms," the president said.
The White House explained that the meeting with Obama allowed it to clarify the position of the Russian leadership, and Washington supports unconditionally one of its aspects, the fight against terrorism, but Moscow's support for al-Assad does not meet a response from the US side.
Putin also said that the final word in the Syrian conflict belongs to the people of the country. "I have a great respect for my colleagues – for the Americans and for the French. But, as far as I know, they are not citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic, therefore they should hardly be involved in determining the fate of the authorities in another state. After all, that's the business of the Syrians," he said.
"The conflict in Syria is deep and unfortunately bloody, so this is why I said that we are going to insist on political transformation together with supporting the authorities in the fight against terrorism," the head of Russia said.
Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq have established a joint information center for anti-IS operations. "It is open for anyone who is interested in the fight against terrorism to join. We just talked about cooperation between the United States and Russia in this anti-terrorist track. We share an understanding that it is necessary to strengthen our work, at least on a bilateral basis," the Russian President said.
The head of state said that the coordination will be carried out with Israel, but without forming special bodies. In addition, according to Putin, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan could join Iran in the new coalition.
At the end of the conversation, the White House expressed "expressed concern about implementation of the pact, including plans by separatists to hold illegal local elections." However, the head of the United States believes that there is a positive opportunity to implement the Minsk Agreements in the next few months.
And Putin, commenting on the discussion on this topic at the meeting, explained that the issue was raised precisely because the White House is, in fact, backing Kiev.
"As for the possibility of more active US involvement in resolving the conflict in Ukraine, the United States is already actively involved in this, although it is not being pushed to the fore. However, the US is standing behind the Kiev authorities and is in constant contact with the Europeans. But there is a good business connection through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a continuing basis between Russia and the United States," the president explained.
He also addressed the fact that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was not present during the Russian leader's address. He said that he did not notice it because it's not important to him for everyone to be present without exception, only those who find it interesting.
"We have stated from the very beginning that the policy of sanctions and isolation in general is ineffective in the modern world, their goals are usually not achieved. For a country like Russia it is simply impossible, just look at the geographic map," he said about sanctions.
In general, Vladimir Putin described the conversation as "meaningful, formal and surprisingly very frank." He said that the heads of state found a lot in common, but there are differences. "These differences are well known, there is no need to repeat them," he noted.
