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Putin blames failure to set up bilateral Trump meeting on protocol problems

Russia’s President added that "the work on the sidelines was useful and successful, as it was not so easy to reach the statement on Syria"

DA NANG /Vietnam/, November 11. /TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told reporters after the APEC summit on Saturday his meeting with the U.S. President Donald Trump had not taken place due to protocol problems.

"As for a separate meeting with Mister Trump, first of all, that was due to the schedule of Mister Trump, and due to my schedule. And due to certain protocol formalities, which our teams, unfortunately, could not manage," he said.

"At the same time, it is nothing bad," the Russian president continued, explaining he had spoken to the U.S. counterpart "during today’s session." "Generally speaking, everything we wanted, we have discussed."

The conversation with Trump, he said, was on the topics the summit discussed - "how to use the new opportunities of the digital economy for development of the economic relations."

"In this aspect, meaning the first and the second, I can say, the work on the sidelines was useful and successful, as it was not so easy to reach the statement on Syria," Putin said. "Our experts had been working on this statement and finalized the document yesterday. The foreign ministers - Mister [Rex] Tillerson and Mister [Sergei] Lavrov - were working on the issues, which arose as the text was presented to experts. And today, the U.S. president and I have agreed that document.".