President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for “a little over an hour” Tuesday morning, discussing a range of pressing international concerns a day after Putin met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a White House official told CNN.
The two leaders discussed the situation in Syria as well as terrorism more broadly, the official said. They also discussed the state of affairs in Afghanistan, Ukraine and North Korea, the official added.
The White House was expected to release a full readout of the call later Tuesday.
Putin said in a statement overnight that he planned to speak with Trump following a rare face-to-face meeting on Monday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Putin spoke with Assad about the military operation in Syria and the need to launch political processes in the country, according to the statement.
“I believe that the problem of terrorism is a global one, a lot should be done to achieve a complete victory over terrorism, but as far as our cooperation in the fight against terrorists in Syria goes, the military operation is really coming to an end,” Putin said.
Putin and Trump recently met informally on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam, where the two leaders had a few encounters and handshakes during “family photos.”
The United States and Russia issued a joint statement on Syria after Trump and Putin discussed the matter during those informal talks.
“The Presidents agreed that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria,” according to the statement. The two agreed to find an “ultimate political solution” to the conflict.
