The summit will be their first full-fledged meeting since Trump took office in January 2017.
The first personal meeting between the two leaders was held on July 7, 2017, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. The meeting was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
It lasted over two hours instead of the scheduled 30 minutes. The presidents discussed the Ukrainian crisis, Syria, cybersecurity issues and ways to improve bilateral relations. Donald Trump later told reporters they had "very, very good talks."
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According to Putin, the US president raised the subject of Russia’s alleged interference in the US election, while he assured his US counterpart that there are no grounds for this allegation. Putin also said that Trump had accepted Russia’s assurances that it was in no way involved in the alleged interference.
The White House neither confirmed nor denied this, while Trump tweeted that he had "strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election," however the Russian leader "vehemently denied it."
President Trump also said he had expressed his opinion before — "I think it was Russia, and it could have been other people in other countries. Nobody really knows for sure."
Putin and Trump also focused on cybersecurity. They agreed to united forces to deal with a package of issues, such as counterterrorism and the fight against organized crime and hacking, and to establish a bilateral working group to this end.
The second Putin-Trump private meeting was held on November 11, 2017, on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam.
The two presidents adopted a joint statement on Syria and reaffirmed their commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, unity, independence, territorial integrity, and non-sectarian character, as defined in UN Security Council Resolution 2254. They also agreed that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria and confirmed that the ultimate political solution to the conflict must be forged through the Geneva process.
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These "steps must include full implementation of UNSCR 2254, including constitutional reform and free and fair elections under UN supervision, held to the highest international standards of transparency, with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate."
The presidents "expressed their satisfaction with successful US-Russia enhanced de-confliction efforts between US and Russian military professionals that have dramatically accelerated ISIS’s [Daesh] losses on the battlefield," and "agreed to maintain open military channels of communication between military professionals… until the final defeat of ISIS is achieved."
President Trump and president Putin confirmed the importance of de-escalation zones and reviewed progress on the ceasefire in southwest Syria that was finalized the last time the two presidents met in Hamburg, Germany.
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In conclusion, the two presidents called on all UN member states to increase their contributions to helping Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Trump again raised the issue of Russia’s alleged interference in the US election during his conversation with Putin on the sidelines of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Danang.
The US leader also spoke about the importance of good relations with Moscow for dealing with global problems and expressed a positive view on the results of his meeting with Putin.
"Met with President Putin of Russia who was at #APEC meetings. Good discussions on Syria. Hope for his help to solve, along with China the dangerous North Korea crisis. Progress being made," Trump said on Twitter after the meeting.
President Putin said the meeting was fruitful, adding that they should find an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations in greater detail.
*Daesh, also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS, is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.
