President Obama discussed the situation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and aides say he was encouraged by what he heard about efforts to address the crisis. Obama called a meeting for Monday night with European leaders.
The president's highest-profile meeting of the day was with Russian President Vladimir Putin, their first since Putin recently returned to office.
The meeting was dominated by the violence in Syria, whose government Russia supports and, some reports say, has armed.
After they met for two hours, it was unclear whether Obama was able to convince his Russian counterpart to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down. “We agree that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific deaths that we have seen over the last several weeks," he said.
President Putin spoke very little about Syria, saying only that he and Mr. Obama had found “commonalities” on that and other issues.
Putin spoke very little at the press conference, and seldom made eye contact with Obama.
The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, called the chemistry between the two leaders “businesslike and cordial.” He dismissed speculation that Mr. Putin's expressionless demeanor meant trouble in U.S.-Russia relations. “I have been in a lot of meetings with Putin. I have watched a lot of video of him. There was nothing extraordinary. That is the way he looks. That is the way he acts. I would not read anything into that at all," he said.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25