Successful meeting of Trump, Putin in Hamburg will not change mood in Washington

The meeting between Russian and US presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Hamburg was better than expected but the mood in Washington will not change immediately because of that, Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University Angela Stent told TASS on Sunday.

"I think the Trump-Putin meeting went better than expected," Stent said. "The most important result was the re-establishment of a dialogue and the agreement to proceed with discussions on Syria, Ukraine and Cyber issues," she said.

"The two presidents clearly established a rapport," the expert noted. "For both it was important to show that we have moved beyond the [ex-US President Barrack] Obama era with such antagonistic relations. It remains to be seen how successful any of these negotiations will be going forward but at least channels of communication have been re-opened," Stent said.

"Trump's supporters will applaud the summit and welcome the re-establishment of a US-Russian dialogue," the expert said. "His detractors are already criticizing him for apparently not taking a harder line with Putin on election interference," Stent said.

"So this summit is unlikely to change the conversation in Washington," she added.

Source: MENA