AFTER his much-publicised, two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Donald Trump chatted informally with the Russian leader for up to an additional hour later the same day.

The second meeting, undisclosed at the time, took place at a dinner for G-20 leaders, a senior administration official said. At some point during the meal, Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump approached alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

In a statement issued on Tuesday night after published reports of the conversation, the White House said that “there was no ‘second meeting’ between Trump and Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner. The insinuation that the White House has tried to ‘hide’ a second meeting,” it said, “is false, malicious and absurd.”

“All the leaders” circulated around the room throughout the dinner, and “President Trump spoke with many leaders,” the statement said. “As the dinner was concluding,” it said, Trump spoke “briefly” with Putin, who was seated next to first lady Melania Trump.

The dinner conversation with Putin was first reported on Monday by Ian Bremmer, president of the New York-based Eurasia Group, in a newsletter to group clients. Bremmer said the meeting began “halfway in” to the meal and lasted “roughly an hour.” The senior official said it began with the dessert course, but did not comment on its length.

Pool reporters covering Trump noted that his and Putin’s motorcades were among the last to leave the event, departing within minutes of each other just before midnight.

The encounter appeared to underscore the extent to which Trump was eager throughout the summit to cultivate a friendship with Putin. During last year’s campaign, he spoke admiringly of the Russian leader and at times seemed captivated by him.

Meeting each other face-to-face for the first time at the Hamburg summit, the two presidents seemed to have a chemistry in their more formal bilateral session, evidenced by the fact that, despite being scheduled for 35 minutes, it continued for more than two hours.

But Trump’s newly revealed conversation with Putin at the G-20 dinner is likely to stoke criticism, including perhaps from some fellow Republicans in Congress, that he is too cozy with the leader of a major US adversary.

Putin’s aide provided the only Russian-English interpretation, the White House statement said, because the president was seated next to the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “Each couple was allowed one translator,” it said. “The American translator accompanying President Trump spoke Japanese.”

The only version of the conversation provided to White House aides was that given by Trump himself, said the administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the White House statement was issued. Reporters travelling with the White House were not informed during the trip, and there was no formal readout of the chat.

The official Trump-Putin meeting, earlier in the day, led to confusion over whether Trump agreed, as Putin later implied, to accept the Kremlin’s denial of any wrongdoing regarding interference in last year’s election.

That meeting was attended by the leaders and their two interpreters, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Tillerson later said Trump twice asked Putin if the conclusions of the US intelligence community that Russia had meddled in the race were true, and Putin twice denied it, so they moved on to other subjects of importance to the bilateral relationship, including Syria.

Russia’s activities during the election, along with allegations that members of Trump’s campaign may have coordinated with Kremlin attempts to tilt the race in Trump’s direction, are the subject of investigations in Congress and by a special counsel.

In Trump’s own account of the formal meeting, he repeated earlier comments that another country might have been responsible for cyber-interference in the election. “I’m not saying it wasn’t Russia. What I’m saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is,” he told reporters on Air Force One as he returned from a visit to France last week.

“You know, China is very good at this,” Trump said. “I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this.”

Trump also said that Putin was unlikely to have preferred him over Hillary Clinton as president, since his goals include taking international energy business away from Russia and building up the U.S. military.

Trump, Putin last to leave

The dinner at the G-20, held July 7-8, occurred hours after Trump and Putin’s lengthy formal meeting. Leaders and their spouses were invited to a musical performance at Hamburg’s riverside concert venue, followed by an intimate dinner in which they were seated next to the spouse of one of their counterparts, rather than their own. First lady Melania Trump was seated next to Putin.

Trump, who is among the newest world leaders in the G-20, remained at the dinner for the entire night. He was among the last to leave — after the host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had already departed. Pool reporters with the president saw Putin’s motorcade leave at 11:50pm, followed shortly by Trump, who departed the concert hall at 11:54pm.

Leaders who witnessed the meeting were “bemused, nonplussed, befuddled” by the animated conversation, held in full view — but apparently not within listening distance — of others present, Bremmer said in a telephone conversation. He said he spoke with two participants at the dinner.

Not unusual

One senior European official whose head of government was there played down the attention the Trump-Putin chat garnered, saying that it was not unusual for leaders to circulate or “withdraw to a corner” at such private gatherings.

“Part of the rationale is the flurry of bilateral contacts that happen,” the official said. “I don’t find it a sensation,” he said of the lengthy dinner chat, although “maybe Trump and Putin are a little different” from other attendees.

The administration official said there was nothing unusual in a meeting with no aides present, noting that Trump met alone with French President Emmanuel Macron when he visited Paris last week. He also held a one-on-one session, with no aides present, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when Modi visited the White House late last month, the official said.

By arrangement with The Washington Post

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2017