Saturday, July 8, 2017

On Friday, United States President Donald Trump met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin as part of this year’s G20 summit, hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hamburg, Germany. The meeting was attended by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but the press were not allowed to remain in the room. After emerging from the roughly two-hour meeting, Tillerson told reporters the two leaders had discussed a ceasefire in Syria, Ukraine, the allegations of Russian involvement in the 2016 US presidential election and plans for addressing similar hacks in the future, some of which President Trump confirmed Sunday. As of Monday, the ceasefire in Syria seemed to be holding, but Trump may have withdrawn his plans for a partnership with Russia on cybersecurity.

The G20, or “Group of Twenty,” meetings began in 1999 as a conference for the finance ministers and central bank officials of the twenty countries with the largest industrialized or developing economies worldwide. G20 became a summit for national leaders in response to the 2008 financial crisis, meeting that year in Washington, D.C. Collectively, G20 countries are home to two thirds of the planet’s population and 85% of its gross domestic product. G20 involves no formal voting process, and it is not unusual for important matters to be discussed and decided in informal meetings between leaders, such as the one between Trump and Putin on Friday.

According to Sputnik Media, which is run by the Russian government, Trump and Putin also discussed the situations in Ukraine and Syria and both traditional and cyberterrorism. Tillerson reported that Putin and Trump came to an agreement regarding a ceasefire in northern Syria. “This is our first indication of the US and Russia being able to work together in Syria,” he said, describing a “lengthy discussion of other areas in Syria where we can work together.” After the meeting, Putin and Trump announced that they and the leaders of Jordan had arranged for a ceasefire in Syria, scheduled to begin midday on Sunday. As of today, a ceasefire in southern Syria, brokered earlier this year, is holding as peace talks resume in Geneva Switzerland.

“I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election,” President Trump said Sunday. “He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion.” Earlier on Friday, President Trump had not responded to journalists’ questions about Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election, which featured both a hack of the Democratic National Committee and other US politican organizations followed by the release of negative information about Trump’s then-opponent, Hillary Clinton. Tillerson reported that President Trump “opened the meeting by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in 2016 election. Putin denied such involvement, as he has done in the past,” he said. “The two leaders agreed this is of substantial hindrance. They agreed to exchange further work regarding commitments of noninterference in the affairs of the US and our democratic process as well as other countries.” This differs from the findings of US intelligence organizations, which maintain that Putin ordered the campaign.

On Sunday, President Trump posted a Tweet about plans for “forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” in coalition with Russia, but appeared to change his mind after public criticism from fellow Republicans Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain, who all cited Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election. “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t-but a ceasefire can,& did!” Trump Tweeted later that day.

Graham said that pairing up with the Russians to prevent election fraud was “not the dumbest idea I have ever heard but it’s pretty close,” on NBC Sunday.

At least one high-ranking Democrat agreed: “If that’s our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow,” said Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee.

Throughout the weekend, protesters numbered in the tens of thousands, with some reports as high as 200,000. They objected to world leaders’ handling of climate change, the Syrian refugee crisis, women’s rights, capitalism, and other issues. Although most were peaceful, others grew violent, throwing bottles and rocks and setting fires in Hamburg’s Schanze neighborhood well into Sunday.

Governor Jerry Brown of California arrived in Hamburg ahead of the G20 Summit to attend the Global Citizen Festival. He gave a speech announcing plans for an environmental summit in San Francisco next year, saying that President Trump “does not speak for the rest of America.”

Other results of the G20 summit included a trade deal between the European Union and Japan.

[edit]