HANGZHOU (China), September 4. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama had several brief contacts at the G20 summit in China and the format of Monday’s meeting is being coordinated, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"He indeed talked to Obama several times briefly "on foot" but not substantively, and agreed to have a separate contact tomorrow," Peskov said. "The meeting will be coordinated, no formats have been agreed so far," he added.
A source in Russia’s delegation told reporters earlier in the day that Obama had asked Putin to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in China’s Hangzhou. "Obama came to Putin and offered (to hold a separate meeting)," the source said.
Peskov told TASS earlier in the day that the Russian and US presidents, who are attending the G20 summit, agreed to have a separate meeting on the sidelines of the event. The Kremlin did not rule out earlier that Putin and Obama could hold a meeting even though it had not been agreed officially.
The two presidents met personally last time at the Climate Conference in Paris in late November last year. Two weeks earlier that month, they also briefly met during the G20 summit in Turkey’s Antalya. Putin and Obama spoke over the phone several times this year.