Trump And Putin Speak “For More Than An Hour” By Phone; Discuss Syria, North Korea, Ukraine

As previewed this morning, when we discussed the surprise meeting between Syria’s al-Assad and Vladimir Putin in which the Syrian president said “Today, on behalf of the Syrian people, I extend my gratitude to you for what you did, we will never forget it”, the Russian president was set to hold a phone call with Donald Trump ahead of further meetings in Sochi on Wednesday with the leaders of Iran and Turkey. Moments ago both the Kremlin and White House released read outs of the talking points on the call that took place around noon.

According to ABC, president Donald Trump spoke for more than an hour Tuesday by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Syria, Iran, North Korea and Ukraine were on the agenda, the White House said.

The Kremlin echoed the White House, and said that the two leaders discussed “a number of topics”, including the Syrian crisis, the North Korean nuclear problem and the situation in Afghanistan as well as the Ukrainian crisis. Putin briefed Trump in the phone call about his talks with the Syrian leader and plans for a political settlement in Syria.

Putin stressed that there were no alternatives for full implementation of the Minsk agreements on peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. .

“Considering the crisis situation in southeastern Ukraine, the Russian president pointed out the absence of a real alternative for the unconditional implementation of the Minsk accords signed on February 12, 2015,” the statement said.

The Kremlin also said Putin also called for coordination of anti-terror efforts with the U.S. Afghanistan was also discussed, the Kremlin said.

Trump and Putin spoke informally several times last week when they attended a summit in Vietnam, where they agreed on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria. The following close exchange also took place: