Obama, Putin meet at COP21 summit in Paris

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his United States counterpart Barack Obama held a meeting on the sidelines of the Paris climate conference that lasted for around 30 minutes.

But Russia has sought cooperation on its terms, providing diplomatic and now military shelter to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and attacking rebel groups that include the Islamic State but also more moderate opponents of Assad backed by Western countries.

Obama and Putin last met a week ago at the Group of 20 economic summit in Turkey.

During the meeting, Barack Obama expressed regret in connection with the downing of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft by the Turkish Air Force over the territory of Syria.

“The two presidents discussed the imperative of making progress on the Vienna process [Syria talks] to bring about a ceasefire and political resolution to the civil war in Syria”, the official said.

Obama also offered the prospect of rolling back sanctions if Russian Federation fully implemented Minsk peace accords signed in February over the Ukraine crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the meeting between the two leaders was constructive, but could not become a crucial one.